Saying Yes (Beth B)

No, I have not completely lost my mind. (Yet, at least!) Last time, I encouraged you to say no and today I am encouraging you to say yes?! I believe that you have to learn to say no, before you can really say yes. The purpose of saying no is to prioritize your life. Hopefully this act will help you carefully choose where and when you should volunteer. And you should volunteer, the world needs you.
It seems like Americans are in a bizarre competition to see who can be the busiest. We cram our lives full of activities and exhaust ourselves. We should, to quote Bob Newhart, "Just stop it." However, I have also noticed that we are also not as busy as we think! The average American watches 34 hours of television per week. That is almost a full time job. If we took one hour of that 136 hours of television viewing per month and volunteered, can you imagine what we could get accomplished?
Currently only 26% of Americans volunteer. If we could even bump that up to 50 percent, that would be millions of increased hours. There are thousands of volunteer opportunities too! Could you give blood, rock babies, give someone a ride, or do a craft with an elderly person? Maybe you would be willing to walk dogs or bake some cookies? What an amazing life lesson for your kids, if your family went and pulled weeds at the community garden, served at a community wide free meal or sorted donations at the food bank! I guarantee that it is a much more rewarding experience than watching a bunch of fake reality television shows! So go and celebrate National Volunteer month by finding a way to give meaningfully of yourself.