There’s an entire section in the bookshop called Self-Help, but there is no section called Help Others.
We need to build the Help Others Industry.
Let’s build it together!
We seem to be pretty obsessed with ourselves. We are looking for love, the perfect job. We want to get into shape and look after our mental health. We are meditating, doing yoga, hiring trainers, reading books, taking classes…anything so we can be the best versions of ourselves.
But there’s a problem.
Human beings are social animals. We aren’t like great white sharks who roam the oceans alone. Animals like that should be the primary targets for the self-help industry. We, in contrast, have friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, and spouses. We work in teams and live in communities. We can only succeed, in EVERY aspect of our lives when someone else is there to help us. But our society doesn’t really reward helping others. Almost all the incentives in our companies are based on individual performance. It’s like we forgot that our success is almost always dependent on the support, help, and advice of at least one other person in our lives. Always.
We are so focused on advancing ourselves we aren’t building the skills to help others or how to ask others to help us.
There is a great irony; If we actually help others overcome their challenges, if we help others find what they are looking for, especially when their challenges and ambitions are the same as ours, we are actually more likely to find what we are looking for.
This is why I founded The Optimism Company – to teach the human skills we need to do better and help each other. And one of the ways we are doing it is with this new blog.
This is a space for stories of all kinds. Every week, we will share content meant to spark inspiration, encourage collaboration and, of course, spread optimism. You will get ideas and tools to help hone your human skills to help others and better ask others for help.
And if you have a story about someone you know inspiring people to help others or how my work has inspired you, send it to us at [email protected] and we might share it here!
Until then, take care of yourself and take care of others.
