Sunday, June 17, 2012

helping over hurdles

I read a blogpost this morning from Becoming Minimalists and wondered if they were psychic. Their post titled "Why Helping Others Succeed Can Be Your Greatest Success" reinforced thoughts that had been running through my mind all week. The quote that truly hit home was "Our most lasting and fulfilling achievements are often earned by helping others fulfill theirs." I can totally relate to this; I give help/advice/encouragement freely and it is truly rewarding to see successes and/or positivity in others' lives coming from it. I have one friend that I made a silly bet with in order to encourage him to succeed. It cemented our friendship and brings back fun memories.

But the receiving end is where I struggle. People offer to help; sometimes I am overwhelmed and accept, but often I try to be strong and try to do it all. I hit a metaphorical hurdle that I couldn't cross by myself this week. I was hurt, angry, sad, disappointed, scared and desperately had no idea how to solve the problem that had been building and then exploded. I'm a pretty private person, so I've only shared the details with four people, two of which are related to the people involved in this dilemma and the other two are very close friends of mine. I was awed by the way each of them took it upon themselves to step in to help. They didn't ask if there was anything that they could do to help, but they took the initiative and acted in helpful ways that I had not considered.

Those actions helped me to confidently and happily cross the new obstacle that I found during my trail run yesterday. Give freely, reach out to others and accept their help graciously. Those are the true rewards in life.