65. Why You Might Want to Consider Doing an Act of Service When You're Having a Rough Day

Hello! I'm back after a little summer break. I'm so happy to be back here...we've got a lot of great episodes coming up on the podcast. But today, I'm sharing some thoughts with you on why doing a small act of service might be just what you need on a bad day.
I also talk about how I love sharing doable ideas on this podcast so ANYONE can make service a beautiful and meaningful part of their own life, even in the simplest of ways.
Thank you so much for being here!

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Transcript

Melissa: Welcome to the do something more podcast.

Melissa: A service oriented show where we highlight the helpers who inspire us all to do something more. I'm your host, Melissa Draper. Thank you so much for being here.

Melissa: Hello, hello and welcome back to the podcast. I took a little summer break, and now I'm back, hoping to get out some great new episodes here in the coming weeks and months. But today I'm just going to start with this solo episode on why you might want to consider service when you're having a rough day. And we've talked a lot on here about the uplifting part of doing service and how that can influence and benefit our lives. But I just wanted to give a little reminder, and I'm so excited to be back here. I had to take a little break and just to be real for just a second, I don't know about many of you, but I love summer. I love having my kids around, love being able to do things as a family. But I'll be quite honest, as a woman who loves structure and schedules and all of those things, I have to work on my spontaneous side. I'm definitely someone who loves the structure and the schedule. Sometimes summer can feel like a lot too, because I get off of that schedule and that structure. So I'm ready. I'm ready to come back to that. Ready to get back to these weekly episodes of the podcast and just want to thank each of you that tune in and listen and share I've had in the last few months, we've had more and more listeners from different cities and even countries and from all over. So it's just fun to see the different parts of even the world where people are finding this podcast and tuning in. So thank you for every listen and download, and I hope you find some good benefits from tuning in to the good things and the inspiration that I share here every week. So today I just wanted to start off with a little reminder. And this actually was something I thought about sharing because I shared it on my personal social media pages a few months ago back in May. And it was just a little thought that I shared and wanted to put out into the world. And then I thought this would be something good to share on the podcast, too. I'm just going to go ahead and read the post that I wrote. Here it is. I had a day recently. I was feeling discouraged and down. I think almost anyone can relate to having days like that. That same day I was organizing some things and came across this paper my little boy had given me last year for Mother's Day. And it was just the sweet reminder I needed about what's really important to me. So just to pause here for a little bit, this was a little paper he gave me when he was in first grade, and it has a picture of me and him that he drew. And then there was a prompt that said, my mom is special because. And so my little guy wrote, my mom is special because she really cares about other people. And I remember when I first read that, I got a little teary eyed. It just that my little boy would see that and think that of me meant a lot to me. So I saw that paper this day and it was a good reminder for me. Do you want to know what I did after reading that? To lift my spirits. I forgot about my to do list. I said a simple prayer and I went and visited the people that came to mind. I needed those one on one visits with others, and I hope they needed them too. I can't tell you how many times this has been the answer for me. When I'm feeling down and low and discouraged and I'm not sharing it today to toot my horn or get attention. I'm sharing it because it might be the answer for you. I have learned from my own experience there is nothing better to lift your own weary or wounded soul than to spend some time lifting others, even if just for a few minutes. It really doesn't take much to help someone feel lifted and loved. Often our words, our presence, our kindness, and a little bit of our time is enough. That's a little message I wanted to share today. And then I love using quotes. So I finished off with this quote from Gordon B. Hinckley from the book standing for something. It says, the best antidote I know for worry is work. The best medicine for despair is service. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired. One of the great ironies of life is he or she who serves almost always benefits more than he or she who has served. So that's the thought I wanted to share with you today. Service is a beautiful thing. And yes, it benefits the giver and the receiver in multiple ways. And that's exactly why I'm doing this podcast. I want as many people as possible out there to experience the joys of service, to experience the richness and the benefit and all of the beauty that it can bring to their lives. I, of course, on here highlight a myriad of people who have discovered their own ways to serve, or even people that are running nonprofits or started their own nonprofits obviously so many different ways that we can serve and what that looks like in the world today. In my solo episodes, I often tackle a lot of the different perspectives and ways you can doably serve others. So my goal here is not guilt. I don't think there needs to be any shame around service or helping others. I don't think anyone needs to start thinking about service and instantly go, I stink. I need to do more or whatever it is. There shouldn't be any guilt or shame because there's just so much joy and beauty to be found. Every single one of us have different ways we can give, and we all can give in different capacities, or we have different talents or we have different things to offer, and especially it might look different at different times and seasons in our lives. There is no one way to do service or even to do it well. So my goal on this podcast is to help you feel inspired to do what works for you right now in your life, even in the smallest of ways. And in the process, I hope that you get to learn for yourself and maybe even feel as passionate as I do about how wonderful it can be to serve. So thank you again for every listen and download and the ways that you share an episode or this podcast. It means a lot to me. So as I shared earlier, in the.

Melissa: Coming weeks I'm going to be sharing.

Melissa: A few more episodes I did in the past year, year and a half that I thought were worth sharing again. And I also have some new ones coming. I'm excited to continue sharing with you more people doing good. I will never run out of ideas. They're all over the place. There are so many people doing good in many different ways in the world today. And again, my goal with this is to show a variety of ways and hope that those listening can feel inspired by the ways others have learned how to do service. And of course, on my solo episodes, I will continue to share my thoughts on how you can make service a regular and meaningful part of your life without any of the guilt, and how it can be doable and meaningful just for you. Thank you so much for tuning in. I'm so happy to be back. So happy to be dishing out some more great episodes and inspiration for anyone that wants to listen. I hope this week you can find a way to do something more to lift, help, inspire or make a difference.