I have been told many times in my life that I am not a charity. I keep failing to learn this.
This is not to brag it is simply to share that there is joy in giving. Often you only need to encourage people, and sometimes the cost to change someone’s life is very cheap. Let me give you an example.
I had a friend who was looking for a job and the resume they had wasn’t that good. I knew that they would need a better resume to get the right job and I found a resume service that was very expensive but worth it. I wasn’t rich and I barely had enough money in the bank to pay for it, but I paid for that resume. They got a job and it changed their life. I was so thrilled and happy that happened to them.
When you want to help people, you can’t let your fears of what might happen to you stand in the way. The safe choice would have been not to spend the money and keep it for an emergency, but then my friend would not have gotten that job and their life would be very different right now. At times you have to make someone else’s needs as important as your own. I am not saying this in an unhealthy way, but generosity and kindness require valuing other people as well as yourself.
In our society selfishness is rewarded in the short term but in the long term, it hurts the individual. We see this in rich billionaires who can’t maintain relationships, who are not happy, and who make others suffer with their poor decision-making. Both of those people who complained that I was too generous were helped greatly by my generosity. They didn’t want to share the benefits with other people.
I have had generous people in my life that changed my life. I hope that in a small way my life can help others.