Living A FUNtastic Life (Part 22)

The young girl looked at me and said something that made me happy until today,

“Thank you for coming to our school to teach us. I have learned a lot through this course.”

It happened at the end of a three-month educational programme that HSR Corporate Mission conducted atAndersonJunior College. We went there week after week to teach life-skills to a group of students that I believe will help them to do well in life.

This is one of the programmes that was conducted by Junior Achievement (Singapore). I was a founding member of this amazing charity organization and we housed the operation atHSRCommercialBuilding.

I’m happy that together with volunteers, we trained about 7000 students last year. We have a dream that one day we can bring these life-changing programmes to every school.

The volunteers who are involved in these programmes do so on their own free will and they are not paid for their services. They do not expect any rewards or returns from their hard work.

Certainly, these volunteers did not do it because they aim to have more happiness in their lives. But many of the active volunteers did become happier.

From my observation, there are learning principles that can help us to be happier as we sincerely practice acts of kindness.

1. Compassion

We are created with compassion in our heart. Unfortunately, in the process of our busy lifestyle, we may have buried it deep in our being.

We need to bring it out by empathizing with the poor, weak, and needy. We need to imagine how hard it is for them to survive and make a living in our fast-moving world.

When we give thoughts to their plight, we have fewer worries about ourselves. In fact, we can become more grateful and thankful that we are in a more fortunate situation.

2. Timing

I have come to realize that many happy people have no time for charity work but they do it anyway. They invest time in doing acts of kindness.

They go out of the way to help somehow. Sometimes, they may even surprise themselves and others with their acts of kindness.

3. Passion

The key to enjoying acts of kindness and increasing our happiness is to be passionate about a chosen and worthwhile cause.

I have also learned that passion needs to be constantly fired up. In other words, we need to make our acts of kindness interesting, fun, and diverse in terms of responsibilities and activities.

Sometimes, it is good to try something new that we can easily handle. We need to move out of our comfort zone and discover new experiences.

4. Lifestyle

While it is good to do acts of kindness in random, it is better if we can plan for it. Commit ourselves to a cause that we believe in.

Make it a part of our habits and integrate it as part of our lifestyles.

In other words, focus on serving a good cause. Do more than what we have done in the past.

5. Positive Outcomes

Acts of kindness can help us to feel better about ourselves. They will generate positive emotions that can inspire more people to be involved in social contributions.

In addition, when we know that our acts of kindness will inspire others to do more for the world, it will give us a feeling that cannot be described in words. In short, we’ll become a happier person.

When is the best time to start to be happy?

If your answer is “Now,” then start to perform acts of kindness immediately.

Where do you start from? Right where you are. Like they say, bloom where you are planted.

Be a blessing to the people around you, and watch your happiness index go up.

Go4It!

I hope this message will find a place in your heart.

By the way, I have also recorded other reflections.

Please go to ‘Notes’ found below my profile picture.

Visit my Inspiration blog at http://liewinspiration.wordpress.com

Visit my Transformation blog at http://hsrpatrickliew.wordpress.com

Please read them and continue to teach me.

Life is FUNtastic!

Question: How can we plan for and perform more acts of kindness for the right cause?