Why Should You Help Others?

Why Should You Help Others

 

By Anubhav Srivastava ( Register for his Workshop – Build Super Confidence For Super Success!)

 

Why Should You Help Others? Helping people has almost universally been considered a good thing. Almost all religions and cultures consider helping the less fortunate to be a noble deed and it is. Even the greatest materialistic accomplishments in history are less respected than the people who dedicated their entire lives to helping people around them (For example Jesus and Buddha).

Even people like Asoka, an emperor who conquered almost all of India is known more for what he became after renouncing any more wars and dedicating his life to helping people and spreading peace through Buddhism.

Apart from the fact that helping people is universally considered an admirable thing, there are other reasons why you should get into the habit of giving. Here is why

 

Because helping others makes you happy and positive

No amount of personal success or achievement can match the inner sense of happiness that you get someone comes up to you and says “Thank You for helping me” or “You changed my life.” I put up my six years of labor Carve Your Destiny for free on Youtube and let me tell you that the comments I get from people after watching it are worth much more than any money

Yes money is important to pay the bills and certainly you should respect money. You should not let people use you for your generosity or scam you or try to avail everything you do for free. Sometimes helping people can be a bad idea and the reasons for that require a whole new article, but for the most part, the positive feeling you get by someone genuinely in need can never be matched by money, even if you have tons of it.

Would you be happier being a miserly billionaire or financing the medical needs of the poor suffering from life threatening diseases, watching them recover thanks to your help and watching them lead a happy life with their families? Some might say being a miserly billionaire would make them happier compared to helping sick people in need, but they are deluded. Anyone with a conscience (and most people do have a conscience) will be far happier and feel far more positive by helping those in need. Unless you are a greedy sociopath.


Because you should be grateful that you are in a position to help.

The very fact that someone or a group of people look up to you for help means that you have been fortunate enough to attain a position where you can not only comfortably tend to your own needs but you probably also have a lot of what you don’t need. Helping does not always have to be with money, it can be with  your time, your efforts or the work you have done.

There were two guys, one was only interested in receiving, while the other wanted to help people. So the first one prayed to God, “Dear Lord, please ensure in the next birth I don’t have to share anything with anyone else and I only get things.The second one prayed, “Dear Lord, please ensure that I always am in a position to give to others” Well in the next birth the first guy who only wanted to receive but never give back, became the poorest beggar in town! The guy who only wanted to give back, was born in a royal family and became a benevolent king! Most of us think happiness happens when you get things. But sometimes you get greater joy from fulfilling the needs of someone else. And by doing so, you can find fulfillment in your own life.

Now obviously this does not mean that you have to give away everything for free all the time, because in that situation you are just inviting people to use you.  I have been blessed with the qualities to inspire so I help people in whatever way I can by giving away a lot of my work for free. But this is my profession as well, I do need to earn a living right? So my premium services, my workshops and  my one on one time is reserved for paying audiences. So never let someone tell you that help always needs to come for free. If that was the case, nobody in the world could ever earn bread and butter for their family. You also deserve to expect something in return if you can provide immense value.


Because helping others earns you Good Karma: I believe that no good deed goes unnoticed nor does any bad deed. Sooner or later it does come around a way (although good and bad things can both happen to people out of sheer luck as well). It may not happen instantly, in some cases it may take years to happen or In Hindu/Buddhist philosophy, even many lifetimes, but it does come around.

There is a great true story showing how Karma works. A young poor boy was extremely tired, hungry and thirsty and stopped by a farm. A little girl came out and he asked her for a glass of water. Instead, she returned with a glass of milk. The boy was grateful and wanted to pay for the milk, but the girl refused saying that her mom taught her not to accept a pay for acts of kindness. Touched, the boy went away. Many years later, that girl become seriously ill and had to be admitted to  a hospital. Her survival looked bleak, but a young doctor was committed to saving her and finally managed to save her. When she got better and it was time to discharge her, her family asked for the bill which was going to be huge. But to her surprised, instead she got a letter from the doctor who saved her. The letter said, You have already paid the bill with a glass of milk!

The above is a true story although facts are twisted around a bit by people sometimes. The boy was Dr. Howard Kelly, one of the founding doctors of John Hopkins University. Good deeds never go unnoticed. The reward will come, sooner or later. But don’t do good deeds just for the sake of rewards. Do it to help others and for your own happiness


Because helping others is crucial to your own success. Even if we forget about Karma or cases where people simply help you back to repay a debt, the fact is whatever success you will get out of life or even the money you will make will depend on how well you are able to solve the problems of others. Sometimes even helping out the competition ends up benefiting you.

There is a story of a farmer who grew very high quality corn. In fact it won awards every year at the state fair. A reporter  was curious and decided to interview him. One of the shocking facts he learned was that he gave the seeds for his corn to his neighbors as well. The reporter asked him how he could share the seeds for the corn that was making him money and winning awards with his competitors. The farmer replied. The wind picks up pollen from corn while it is growing and takes it across to different fields. If the quality of the corn grown in the other fields is not good, over a period of time the bad pollen will ruin the quality of my corn as well. In order to grow corn that is really high quality, wins awards and makes me money, I need to make my neighbors succeed as well!

Stop looking at life as a competition all the time. Sure, there are some areas where competition is inevitable but in many cases you will realize that helping each other leads to the common good for everyone!

 

Conclusion

I hope this article has given you convincing reasons to help other people around you. Helping others makes you feel positive and is crucial to your own success as well. Also, don’t be mistaken with the idea that helping others always involves money, there is a ton of ways in which you can help people through your time, effort and services. It all counts. That being said there are certain situations where you should not help others, especially where people are clearly trying to manipulate you or scam you. That subject will be dealt with in detail in the next article!

 

About the Author

Anubhav Srivastava is an author, speaker and the director of Carve Your Destiny, a first of its kind inspirational documentary featuring some of the most famous personalities from diverse fields. It has been seen by over 1 Million People on Youtube. Anubhav has also been featured in numerous International and India Media outlets such as BBC , The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Rediff.com, Leicester Mercury and many others.

For one on one consulting or a motivational workshop at your organization please email anubhav101@gmail.com . If you would like to write a guest blog post on Anubhavsrivastava.com you contact me on the same email address.

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