Give Value

While I proved to myself that I have the balls and confidence to master the approach there's another aspect that needs to be added. Basically that with every approach I should be giving value as opposed to taking it. What I decided to do was go out and observe 5 situations where I could give value and do nothing and then observe 5 situations where I could give value and act upon it.

The idea is that it'll help train my mind to more easily recognize situations where I could give value and then once recognized help train myself to be someone who acts on it.

When I decided to do this task it seemed pretty simple and easy at first but I realized how hard it was to truly find a situation that I could give value to. I was like superman scouting the city but not finding any crime. However as I went about my day I did begin seeing things, even if they were pretty small, and then acted upon it. Ideally I'd like to take this to a larger scale but since I made the challenge for two days I used what I saw. Here's what happened.

The first thing I saw was a girl in a wheel chair struggling to get out of the row. I told myself that I'm just supposed to observe at first so did nothing, however she also got stuck trying to get out the door so I said "screw this" and helped her out. 1 observed, 1 demonstrated. The rest went as follows.

The four other times I observed opportunities to give value were...

1. A girl dropped her books in front of me which I didn't respond to

2. I noticed someone was walking around looking lost and realized I could give him directions

3. A guy was sitting around and seemed bored and I could have invited him to an event going on

4. A girl was struggling to carry some stuff for her dorm room and I could have offered to help

The four other times I acted on giving value were...

1. I helped a friend out with a sticking point he had in his game

2. I offered my last piece of gum to a guy standing next to me in line

3. I paid for my boys dinner while we were out last night

4. I met a local band and complimented on one of their songs and let them know I'd help out getting them noticed through some contacts I have

I also gave value many other times though to such as holding doors open, giving directions, and complimenting the girl who did my hair to her boss.

Overall I think this excercise was worth doing but it's definately something that needs to be taken to a deeper level and something that builds on itself. This is one challenge that needs to never truly stop.