#35 Days of Dares #9 Dare to Share
Give yourself away you find yourself. Share your love, time, money, skills, words, friendship and so on, your life will be richer.
Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happiness; it has no taste.
Charlotte Brontë
If you live in Australia like I do, you’ve won the lottery of life. We couldn’t live in a better country. It’s politically stable, we have amazing weather, it’s beautiful, we have a thriving economy, a welfare system, a free health system and we are a society that promotes equality. It’s not perfect, however, we are privileged.
If we are privileged, we are responsible to share. If we have anything to share, we shouldn’t keep it all for ourselves. It’s not healthy on an individual or social level.
I’ve had a lot of conversations with people about how they are looking for meaning in their lives. That working the 9 to 5 routine isn’t enough. That their lives lack passion and purpose. It’s an ironic thing, but until you can share what you have and give your life away, it’s hard to find purpose.
I’ve now interviewed hundreds of people who found their way to post midlife work with deep personal meaning. In nearly every case, it starts with some version of service, advising, mentoring or volunteering. These are all things you’re well positioned to do after amassing years of experience. It might be called the “give yourself away” approach. And giving yourself away is a surefire approach to helping your skills find their next use. Marc Freedman
I think we all find purpose when we share whatever it is that we have with others. Each one of us has something to share, be it wisdom, professional skills, cooking, humour, hugs-if we share, if we give ourselves away, we find ourselves.
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. Gandhi
Jesus said, ‘If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.’
Sharing of yourself is the hardest. It’s easy to transfer some money, to mouth a platitude, but to actually do something that helps someone costs. It costs pride, time, skill—all sorts of things. But the cost is worth it. The cost is paid back a million times over in ways that you never expect.
I dare you to share!
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