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“ You feel alive to the degree that you feel you can help others.”

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 ~ John Travolta

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What do you do when you’re trying to figure something out? Do you find yourself needing that one piece of information that will make sense of something? Are you able to easily ask for help or is it difficult to get answers?

Nowadays, when someone says “back in the old days“, they usually mean way back in the 90s or earlier before the Internet was ubiquitous. I’ll be the first to admit, the social texture of our world was certainly different back then.

Remember the Yellow Pages? Now as much of a relic as the Thomas Guide, the Yellow Pages were often the first place you’d look when you were hunting for expert assistance on something. The pro-tip back in the pre-Internet days when you were doing business or preparing to visit another city would be to go to your local library, (which conveniently stocked phone books from every metropolitan area), and do your research in advance, writing down names, addresses, and phone numbers by hand with a pen on your paper pad.

Nostalgia aside, the fact is, it wasn’t as easy to track down that elusive piece of info back then as it is today. There was less to sift through, but crowdsourcing wasn’t a thing yet. There’s plenty to be said for abundance.

It’s easy to take a negative approach, and get caught up in the mindset that people aren’t helpful and that you’re on your own. The key, then and now, is overcoming your unwillingness to ask for help in the first place.

But let’s look at the other side of the coin for a moment. Helping people feels good. Being of service in some small way is a surefire prescription for alleviating depression.

It used to be, “Help, a little old lady across the  street“ now, it’s “Help a random stranger on the Internet.”

Arguably, one of the biggest benefits of the web is its function of bringing folks who like to help together with folks with some sort of mundane question or personal conundrum to tackle.

Want proof? Take a look at any hobby, any trade, or any sort of DIY project (like fixing up an old house, on the front-burner for us at the moment). Fire up your internet window of choice, peck your query into the search bar, and prepare for the firehouse to gush.

There are old-school forums on just about anything. Or jump on Reddit, a site that corrals every interest under the sun into message boards called ‘subreddits’. Need help with your trees? Ask r/Arborists. Your kitchen? The kind cooks at r/AskCulinary have your answer. Heading to Europe? You may want to r/AskFrance a few questions.

No matter what you’re facing, someone out there has dealt with it before. Posing your Q to a crowd of enthusiasts brings an entirely different quality of resources to the fore than a simple search.

What goes around comes around, and you may find yourself feeling the urge to chime in on someone else’s question too. It easy to scratch that ‘feels great to be helpful’ itch when you realize you’re the one with the nugget of info that will be a game changer for someone else.

There are a lot of different ways to answer the question “Why are we here?” “To help others” is a pretty good place to start.

Much love till next Monday!

M+

Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine

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