101. Service 101: 3 Doable Ways You Can Add Service to Your Life Today, This Week, and This Month

When it comes to service, the most important part is the doing! We have to be able to take the steps that actually lead to action and start serving and helping in the ways we feel called to do in our homes, neighborhoods, and communities. In this episode I am giving you very actionable items: one you can do today, one you can do this week, and one you can do this month. I also give simple ideas for each one. I hope it helps you see how service truly can be a very doable part of your every day life. 

Send me an email (dosomethingmore.podcast@gmail.com) or message me on social media to let me know if this podcast episode helped you take action and what your experiences were, I would love to hear! 

Links mentioned in this episode:

JustServe.org

Follow the podcast on social media:

Do Something More Instagram

Do Something More Facebook

Do Something More YouTube

Transcript

Melissa: On this episode of the podcast, I am giving you the True Service 101.

And that's not just the talking about it, which we do love to do on this podcast,

but I am giving you three actionable things you can do today,

this week, and this month to incorporate service into your life. I promise they are very doable and they will be great ways that you can do some service and make a difference your community today.

Welcome to the Do Something More podcast,

the show all about service, where we highlight the helpers who inspire us all to do something more.

If you're passionate about nonprofits or looking for simple ways to volunteer and give back to the causes that matter to you,

this is the podcast for you.

I'm your host, Melissa Draper.

Stick around and I'll show you all the many ways anyone can truly make a difference in our world today.

Hello and welcome to this 101 episode of the podcast.

As I thought about wanting to do this episode,

I loved that we're on episode number 101,

and it's the beginning of the school year, right? We have kids going back to school.

I just sent my oldest off to college. He's starting his freshman year of college.

And so you think of that in the terms of taking a 101 class, right? A class that gets you back to the basics or that helps you learn about the very introductory things to a topic.

And so I thought about Service 101. What would an episode about Service 101 look like?

And for this podcast, my goal is always to prompt you to action.

I think there's a lot of ways that we're sharing good ideas. Social media has a lot of information and things you can access on almost any topic.

But the key is being able to step away from all of that information that we get nowadays and actually turn it into action,

into doing the things in our life that we want to do and are important to us.

So that, to me, is what I thought a Service 101 class should include,

because service isn't service. Until we actually do something,

we can't just sit around talking about it. We've got to go out and do.

And I think also most people know what service is at its heart. Many of us have done it from the time that we are kids. We've had opportunities to serve or to help or to be kind and to give back.

Most of us have experienced the good feelings that come from that when we're able to do that and to serve and help those around us.

And so I want to just give you some ways that today,

this week,

and this month,

you can make service an actionable thing in your life.

Because, call me Pollyanna, I think most people do have the desire to give back and to serve and to help those around them. We just don't always know how to make that happen.

So that's what I'm going to do in this episode. I am going to give you one thing that you can go and do today. The very day you're listening to this episode, you can go and do it and perform this act of service.

And then I'm going to give you a second thing that you can go and do this week that I know will make a difference and is not too hard to do.

And I'll give ideas and actionable steps with all of these items.

And then number three, I'm going to give you something you can do this month,

in the next following month,

again to make service part of your life.

And these are not groundbreaking things. They're actually things that we've talked about on the podcast before.

But I wanted to break them all down into this one episode for anyone that needs that encouragement and you need to feel a little excitement or even maybe a kick in the ***.

I don't know, whatever you need to get you doing service in a way that is important to you and can make a difference for you and those around you.

So here's what you can do today.

The minute this podcast goes off, you can go and do this because it takes less than a few minutes to make it happen.

You can use the power of your words to serve someone.

Now what do I mean by that? Well, we've talked about that on the podcast before, the way we can use our words to serve those around us.

Some of the ideas that I have given in the past have included giving a sincere compliment to someone. When those nice thoughts or words pop up into our head anyways, that we just have the courage to go ahead and share them with that individual.

Giving thank you notes or telling people thank you for the good things that they have done for us is another way.

I even did an episode on how you can be the one to save someone from an embarrassing moment. So when you see that person with the lettuce leaf in their teeth or you see someone with their zipper down or whatever it might be, you be the one to have the courage to speak up and say something and save them from some of the embarrassment that might follow.

So those are all ideas that we've talked about here on the podcast, but you can do that you can do that right now.

You can pause this podcast right now and send a text to someone in your life that might need to hear your encouraging words or be reminded how much you love and care about them or what their friendship means to you.

There might be someone that needs to hear a sincere thank you for something that they did for you, for your family, or for your community.

This time last year, as part of my church community, I was in charge of two kind of big activities and they were a big deal. They took a lot of time and effort for me and for those that were involved in planning them.

And I was so touched after each of those. I got a sweet thank you card from someone who attended those activities in the mail. And it was very simple.

But it just hit me the intentional way they went about sending me those thank yous. And it was just one person for each activity, but it meant a lot to me.

So those thank yous can mean a lot. Maybe there's a teacher that's helping you with your child here at the beginning of the school year, or maybe there's a friend who recently supported you in something that you were doing with work.

Or maybe there's a family member who has been helpful and encouraging in the things that you are going through right now. Take the time to send them a text, use the power of your words and serve them in that way.

And I want to say that this is is especially a great service we can do with our families. Yes, service to our families is service and we can use the power of our words to serve our families.

Maybe as a mom, you were super grumpy with your kids this morning, getting everyone out the door. I've been there, totally get that,

had that experience. Check, check. But maybe you are wanting to use the power of your words to serve your family later on this day. So today you decide that you,

as your children come home or your husband comes home, or as you interact with the different members of your family,

you are going to say two or three positive things to each of them before the day is out.

And trust me, I have tried that too. And it's not always as easy as it sounds.

It can be difficult to do at times,

but it can immediately change the feeling in your home and within your family and can be a really powerful way to serve your family. So that is the advice and the encouragement I'm giving you for today.

Find a way to use the power of your words to serve someone today.

You can even, as I said, pause the podcast right now and send that text and let someone know. And I just don't think all of us do that as often as we should or all of us realize the power that that has in lifting and helping those around us.

And using our words is. Is a good thing, and it is very actionable. And it is being a doer. Sometimes I get that, too. Well, that's just not really doing anything.

Yeah, it is. It is. And it's making a difference. So that's what you can do today.

Use the power of your words to serve.

All right, for number two, I'm going to give you something that you can do this week to serve and make a difference. And this one is more so in your community at large.

And the advice, I'm going to say is to find a way to donate to a cause that matters to you or is important for your community.

Now, sometimes when we say that word donate,

people often think we're talking about hundreds or thousands of dollars. And while that can be a great way to donate,

that is not always what I'm talking about. When I say to do that this week,

it can be five or ten dollars to a nonprofit organization in your community that's serving a population that you care about and want to serve.

And there are many of these organizations. I promise you they will take whatever you can give.

They are very appreciative. All the nonprofits that I have on this podcast, I can tell that they want to. To just encourage and have people help in any way that they can.

But they all spend a lot of their time fundraising and looking for donations and trying to find ways to fund their causes. And so you just donating that five or ten dollars can and does make a difference.

So find a nonprofit.

A lot of them have a way for you to donate online right there.

And you can just do it. Donate there, right online.

If you don't want to donate cash, you can also donate in kind items.

So I know again from experience from the organizations that we've had on this podcast,

ones like food pantries or food kitchens or places that serve the homeless in your community,

or domestic violence shelters or places that serve families or women and children in crisis,

a lot of these places will accept in kind donations, and they often will have lists on their website of the things that they are in need of right now.

And so one thing that you can do is as you're doing your weekly grocery shopping, either you're in the store, in person, picking up something for somebody in your family, or you're putting in your online order with Walmart or whatever it might be.

You can just add one thing.

Add the one extra thing of laundry detergent.

Add a few extra cans of that soup you were ordering already.

Add just one more pack of toilet paper.

So just add one more simple thing to your order and then take that item and go and donate it and drop it off to that organization. Many of them have times each day you can drop off those things that you're wanting to donate.

That is something you can do this week. Does it take a little more effort than my first idea, sending a text and using the power of your words? Yeah, it might take a little more effort, but you can completely roll it into the things that you're already doing.

You're already buying things for your home. Buy one more thing.

Or you can go on and do a quick website search for organizations in your community and you can send them that donation through their website.

Or you can use other crowdfunding things. Of course, there's all the GoFundMes and things out there that are circling around or sometimes we see with a news story.

If that's more your style of what you want to donate, you want to help an individual, maybe that's going or walking through a particularly hard thing, then go find one of those and donate to it.

And one reason I give this suggestion is not just the simplicity of it or the need that is definitely there for the donations these organizations need in our community.

But I also share this because donating is empowering. There are a lot of things in this world that we hear about, especially in our digital world or we experience or we see those around us experiencing that are out of our control to help.

And that can feel really frustrating and lonely and scary at times.

And there is something so empowering when we acknowledge that. We acknowledge what we have no control over, what we can't always directly fix, but we can acknowledge the things that are in our power and control.

And there are good things we can do right here in our own communities to help and to give back to others.

I remember years ago,

in our own city and town in our area, we had a fire that was sweeping through the mountains. And an area, a city right next to us was evacuated, many from their homes.

We weren't evacuated ourselves, but we were very close to the place where they were. And my children were young at the time, and it just felt kind of scary for them.

And especially at night, you could look up right out our window up the mountain and see it ablaze and on fire. And it was.

It was a little unsettling to see that felt like you were walking out into the middle of a Lord of the Rings movie scene or something. It was a little unsettling and scary for their sweet little tender minds and hearts.

And so I remember taking my family during that experience and we went to the store and we just bought a few food items and some diapers and a few things,

and then took them as a family to a place that was collecting those donations.

And it was very simple. And I remember even thinking that at the time and thinking,

you know, this really isn't that much.

We haven't had to go out of our homes, you know, feeling a little guilt that we hadn't had to leave our homes in the ways that others had,

and feeling like, is this really going to do much? Is it really going to make a difference?

But the reality is there was not a lot we personally could do to help those who had been evacuated or. Or to fight these fires. And so we took the time to recognize what we could do, go and collect these donations as a family.

And we delivered them and. And it helped and it did make a difference.

And it came a great conversation piece for my children to talk about how we can look at hard, scary situations. And as that Fred Rogers quote says from his mother, we can look around and find the helpers and see the helpers, and we can be the helpers in.

In simple ways. And so I think that is what donating does for a lot of us. It's empowering.

It enables us to act on some of those feelings and emotions we have when we can't directly help with things, but we can go and support others who are directly helping with different things in our community.

And I'm a religious person. I could do a whole episode of the good benefits that I believe come when we choose to make donating and giving back of our resources a regular part of our lives.

I really believe in that and that there's power in that there are good things that come into our life and good ways that we see we can continue to serve and to help and give back to others.

I think it's something everyone should do.

That's a whole episode in and itself. So in this one, I'm just simply inviting you to take that action,

to take that step and experience for yourself the power in donating to the causes that are important to you, that matter to you, or that are helping people in your community.

So that's what you can do this week. Find a way to donate to an organization or nonprofit that is important to you and you, of course, can go back through all my episodes.

I have a myriad of nonprofits and in all of those podcast episodes in the show notes, I leave links to the organization's website.

If you want, you can start there, go find one of those, go to their website,

give them five or ten dollars, and support the cause that they are working toward. That's what you can do this week. Donate. Donate in some way.

Number three is an action item that you can do this month.

So this is something you can do this month to make service part of you or your family's lives.

And this one is a tip I've given before.

It's find a way to add in some service with what you are already doing.

There's lots of activities and things that we are already doing regularly.

And sometimes when we try to come up with and say I'm going to do a service project,

it can feel overwhelming. Or someone says, hey, we should do some more service.

It's sometimes like I'm already doing so much, I don't know how to put this into my life.

So instead I am suggesting instead of planning something different altogether,

slip in some service with what you are already doing. So what does that look like?

Well, maybe you have a date night planned with your spouse or your significant other or your partner or whoever. Instead of going to dinner and a movie or whatever it is you have planned the two of you for that date night,

decide to go and do some service together.

Now you might do some local service in your community.

Maybe you'll go visit an older couple in your neighborhood that you know could use a good visit and companionship.

That's just one idea.

Or maybe you'll decide to do it in a more organized way with a community.

You can look@justserve.org and find lots of ideas that way. Or you can find organizations in your community that are participating in different ways. Maybe you have a girls night out planned with some of your girlfriends.

Instead of going to do what you usually do,

going out to dinner, going shopping, getting your nails done, whatever it might be,

you decide to all do a service project together.

Maybe all of you bring some donations together. Maybe take what you would have spent on dinner or on shopping and go buy some donations for some hygiene kits or school kits.

And you bring those all together and put them together and then deliver them to those organizations in your community that are collecting those kinds of things.

That's just one idea, but there's lots of things you can do that way.

Maybe it's with your family Maybe your family has something you do regularly or I know a lot of us like to do activities with our kids or grandparents with their grandchildren.

And maybe instead of going bowling or going swimming or going to the movies or whatever it might be,

you decide to do a service project together. And that can be as simple as, hey, kids, we're going to grab some plastic grocery bags, we're going to go visit some of the parks that you guys love in our community,

going to pick up garbage, and we're going to make them look beautiful and clean.

One project that I love my son did with his church group a while back, I think they did it on Valentine's Day last February.

We live near a hospital.

Our neighborhood's right by a hospital. The church we attend is right by a hospital.

And so his leaders that day had these 8, 9, 10 year old boys write cute little Valentine notes to people to let them know that they were loved.

And then they took those with a little bit of candy and they went and put them on, on the windshields of cars in the parking lot of people that they thought might be visiting the hospital that evening, seeing a loved one, someone that might be in the hospital,

or those that are working there to take care of people in the hospital. And they left those sweet little notes. And he loved doing that service project. It was super simple, didn't take a lot of time or planning, and was something that they could do.

So maybe your family does something like that as your family activity this month. I know with my family, we love watching football, especially BYU football.

We're big BYU fans.

And so it could be something as simple as, okay, we're watching the football game together. Okay, guys. During halftime,

I went and found this project that we can work on and do on justserve.org and we're going to do it together at the kitchen table during halftime.

That's what we're going to do. Or maybe we're going to get up and go help so and so needs some help weeding her yard.

So we're going to get up and go do that together for 30 to 45 minutes. So as you can see, a lot of these ideas I'm giving, they're very simple,

but I want you to just kind of tweak it and think of it that way. Instead of I have to do more service or how do I do service?

What am I already doing?

What are some of those activities I'm already doing each month with my family,

my friends,

my spouse,

and how can I turn that into an opportunity? To serve. And it can be a very simple opportunity.

Doing something small in your community,

making cookies and taking them to your neighbors can be simple, but the rewards of that are great. And I've also talked about this before,

that can be a great way to build our relationships with each other.

There are so many good,

joyful feelings that come from doing service. That's just a natural result.

It happens to everyone.

If you haven't experienced it, go give it a try. I promise you will feel some of those feel good feelings.

And what better way to invite those feelings into the good relationships in our lives with our family, our friends, our neighbors than to do service alongside each other.

So we are feeling and experiencing all those good things together. It can naturally strengthen our relationships with each other.

That's another reason why I am encouraging you this month to add in some service with some kind of activity or something you are already doing.

So that is my service 101 for you today on this episode, number 101 of the podcast on how you can make service an actionable part of your life. I really just wanted to break it down so that you could go away from this saying, okay, I got it.

I'm going to do it. I can do that. That's easy. That's doable.

That's something I want to do, something I've been hoping to do. Thank you, Melissa for giving me this advice and encouragement. So I'm going to go over all those things just one more time.

One Today.

This is a way you can serve today, right now, as soon as this episode is finished.

Use the power of your words to serve someone.

Send a text.

Give a compliment to a stranger at the grocery store.

Send a thank you to someone that has helped you in some way in your life. Do it with your family.

Give them some kind, encouraging, positive words that they might need to hear today.

All of those are ways that you can serve today, right now. Use the power of your words to serve.

Number two is a way you can serve this week and that's to find a way to donate money or in kind donations to an organization in your community that is supporting a cause you care about.

Or you can go online and find a nonprofit that's maybe not in your community.

Go give them some money and donate to them as well. And you can find a lot of ideas if you need some.

Through the episodes we've done in this podcast.

There's links to all of those organizations in the show notes and I know almost pretty much all of them would appreciate any kind of donation you are willing to give.

And number three, what is a way that you can serve this month?

Find a way to add in some service with some activity or event or something you are already doing. Just slip service right in there with something that you already have planned and go and do it.

And you can do this in easy simple ways. Or if you want to put in a little more effort, you can look at websites like justserve.org and find a way to plan something to do on your own or with your family or whatever it might be.

Those are my ideas. I would love to hear if this has been helpful for any of you or if you were able to implement any of these ideas and the effect that had on you.

You can email me anytime@dosomethingmore podcastmail.com or you can visit me on my social media. I'm on Instagram DoSomethingMore podcast or on Facebook at DoSomething More podcast. I leave the links to all of those in the show notes every time so you can come find me there and message me and let me know.

I would love to hear if my doable, actionable items were in fact doable for some of you and you were able to turn them into action in your life.

And I just want to say thank you again for being part of this podcast community,

for listening and I hope that you are finding encouragement and inspiration from my small corner of the podcasting world.

And as one more piece of reminder or advice,

please leave me a five star rating or even a review on Apple Podcasts. Those reviews help this podcast be able to be found by others who are looking for this kind of inspiring content and that really means a lot to me.

That's another way you could serve the minute this podcast is over is to go and write a review,

especially if you found an episode especially inspiring and helpful for you.

And as always this week, I hope that you can find a way to do something more to help lift, inspire or make a difference.