“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” Booker T. Washington

Often, I talk to people who ask me how they can help change the world.  Some of them are the super go-getters, the people who always seem to be doing so much more than we mere mortals can do.  More commonly, though, it’s regular, everyday people who want to help and are wondering how.

Sometimes, questions come from people who are feeling depressed (or are asking for a friend who is) and simply looking for some way to get outside of themselves for long enough to see if things can start making more sense again.

Luckily, helping others is one thing that really can make you feel happier, while also changing the world.  Even science tells us that helping others helps ourselves.

For starters, you are a wonderful person for reading and sharing posts like this to try to learn new ways to help others (while also making yourself feel good). Just doing that is a bonus way to #changetheworld!

You matter.  That fact that you’re reading this says that you care, that you want to make a difference, and that you are one of the people that is changing the world for the better – just by being a good human and by asking what you can do.

So, what can you do?

There are at least three categories of helping that you can choose.

Helping Directly

I can say from personal experience that getting out and helping others made a big difference for me as far as feeling happy and fulfilled – and maybe it can for you.  The interaction with people and immediate feedback gives you the “helper’s high” that can enhance your mood for the better long after the activity is over.

Ways to help directly include:

• Getting involved and volunteering with an organization with a cause you personally care about
• Participating in activities and events that interact with people experiencing what you experienced
• Asking friends and family to join you in these efforts

Helping by Being an Advocate

This type of helping can be as easy as sharing what you love.  Being the “number one fan” of an organization or cause, and being an informal spokesperson for them to your friends, family, and coworkers can really help increase awareness.  Your voice is trusted by people you know, so sharing something that is important to you will probably be interesting to them.

• Sharing information, events, or activities about the cause, and an organization helping the cause, that you care about on social media
• Writing an article to share on a guest blog, LinkedIn, Medium, or Facebook
• Sharing photos and events from an organization you support on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest
• Writing to your elected officials and asking them to help support legislation that helps your cause, or prevents harmful laws against your cause

Helping by Donating

Donating might seem obvious, but donations are still the lifeblood of many organizations.  Luckily, it’s easier than ever these days to give online when you feel inspired.

• Giving a donation in any amount directly to the cause – then share that you did on social media so others see that it matters to you
• Supporting organizations helping your cause via Kiva, Go Fund Me, Facebook donations, or another fundraising platform
• Asking your local government officials to help fund your cause via local organizations

While you are thinking about all the ways you might go forth and change the world, it might also be helpful to remember a few other simple things when thinking about being happier:

• It is completely valid to feel stressed, overwhelmed, or anxious. Most people feel stress, a feeling of being overwhelmed, or some anxiety fairly often.
• Social media is the “highlight reel” of people’s lives.  It is unfair to compare yourself to others at all, and especially to what you see on social media, because social media is not necessarily day-to-day reality.

When I feel anxious and want to feel better, there’s one more thing important thing I’ve learned to do that really helps me calm down and refocus.

I think about all of the big and small things to be grateful for, and a few ideas are noted below.  Sometimes putting things into perspective and thinking about the positive things to be grateful for helps to reduce anxiety and can make us feel happier.

Things you might choose to be grateful for at this very moment, if they are true for you:

• You can read
• You have clean water to drink
• You live in a free country
• You do not live in fear daily
• You have freedom of speech
• You have shelter
• You have food
• You have access to education
• You can decide most things
• You have equality
• You can express your religion
• You can express your gender
• You can love who you want
• You can be healthy
• You can earn a living wage
• You can save money
• You can voice dissent
• You have your mental faculties
• You have physical abilities
• You can change
• You can love
• You can create change
• You have friends
• You have family
• You can create peace
• You can create friendships
• You have reasons for optimism
• You help create the world you want to live in

Not everyone has all of these things, even the most basic.  While we can debate the nuances of many of these items, some of you reading this might not have a few of them at all.  There are many countries in the world where some of the items listed above are not reality.  I hope that soon reality will be different in those places and that things can change.

For all of us reading this who might have some or most of the things listed above, it’s worth taking a moment to feel gratitude for that, at least.

The good news is, by helping others, you may be able to also impact creating larger change.

Other people’s ideas about how things should be are pretty unimportant, really, as far as the big picture is concerned.  What truly matters is how we interact with other people, how we make other peoples’ lives better, and what we are doing to really create positive change.

It has become ever more vividly clear to me over the past decade or so that people are the reason it’s all worthwhile.  Helping people.  Appreciating people.  It matters.  And it can make a big difference in how happy we feel.

When people ask me how they can change the world, I usually have a pretty simple answer:  Just be a good person, try to help others, and be grateful for the things you do have.  The rest will follow.

Now go do a few simple acts to change the world (feel free to order my book with 500 ways to make a difference if you want some more ideas :).  After all, as Lao Tzu eloquently stated, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

I’d love to hear your favorite world-changing or #gratitude ideas in the comments, and please connect with me @CharityIdeas or Amy Neumann on social media.

It could be Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, or another favorite Billionaire. The point of the question is, to ask yourself what you’d do if money and time (and therefore freedom) were unlimited.

If you removed any obstacles from your current thinking – if there were literally no barriers for you do anything you want, forever – what exactly would you do?

I’ve asked hundreds of people this question in some form or another in 20+ years. Often, I am surprised to learn that many people have never thought about what they really want. They haven’t really considered the, “What’s YOUR dream?” question.

If you don’t know the answer, which is OK, then how do you know what you really want? More importantly, how do you know if you already have it? (Which is a fantastic answer, BTW.)

Although I’m not a life coach, I do occasionally play one on TV, as they say. I am genuinely curious about what makes friends, family, and colleagues tick, so I ask them. Often.

Big dreams don’t have to be unrealistic!  First, though, it’s critical to know what your dreams truly are.  Maybe you’re already living them?

After you think about the cool things you would buy for yourself and others, what you would give to charity, and the fabulous trips you would take, what about the rest of your life?

How do your family and friends enter your mind? Often, people say they’d spend most or all of their time with their family. Great! This might mean you’d love more work/life balance. So, things like paying someone to do yard work or housekeeping on occasion to free up an extra weekend day to spend with family might make sense.

Sometimes, people share overarching dreams like “Join the Peace Corps,” “Write a book,” “Get a PhD,” or other similarly BIG things.

We all have a book in us!  Writing a few snippets first is easy.  Add them together for a book!

Happily, pieces of these dreams are often readily, even freely, available to do right now (in a less-dramatic fashion.)

For example:

• “Join the Peace Corps” can translate to spending a couple hours a month helping a favorite cause.

The Peace Corps is amazing but can be impractical for people with families and jobs.  How about volunteering for a couple hours a month to start?

• “Write a book” can translate into writing a book that can be self-published and sold on Amazon. Even easier, how about a blog? Easier yet, how about a LinkedIn post?

• “Get a PhD” can translate into learning something of interest. MIT and other universities offer most of their classes for free online for curious types (not for credit.) You can download apps to learn languages, listen to TED Talks, or download free audio books to listen during your commute. Anything you have an interest in, you can probably learn a PhD-worth, for free.

Do you really want a PhD, or are you simply excited to learn a lot about something interesting?

The goal is, to really ask yourself the question: “What would I do if there were no time or money limitations on my life?”

Because after a little thought, it usually points you to your passion. And once you unearth that gem, everything might get just a little bit more fun.

The biggest hidden treasure might be the answer to what you’d do if you had a billion dollars.

Big dreams start with small steps. So while we are all waiting for those billion-dollar checks, if we know what we really care most passionately about, we can start with a few little steps right now that will help us feel happier and more complete.

I’d love to hear from you about any ideas or insights! Please leave a comment or connect with me @CharityIdeas on Twitter or on LinkedIn.

A few years ago, I knew next to nothing about opioids. In fact, the word “opioids” really didn’t connect any dots in my head.  I didn’t connect “opioids” to the rampant “pain medication” overdoses.  If you said “heroin,” I had a vague idea of the topic. Also, the word “heroin” conjured up many outdated and misinformed ideas from movies, and things I read long ago.

KnowTheRX – KnowTheRx.org

In the past couple years, all that changed. A young relative by marriage overdosed on heroin. High school kids whose parents and friends I knew overdosed on prescription pills. I saw the news stories on the tragedies of opioid overdoses, and related horror stories, growing more and more frequent.

[Already thinking of a tragic example of a friend, relative, coworker, or someone else who has shared a similar sad fate?  Then you are normal.  It’s either directly, or one level removed, impacted nearly everyone.  It’s everywhere.]

Turns out, whatever we thought we knew about opioid and heroin addiction was all wrong.

So I started getting involved in a few organizations aiming to help educate people about the dangers of opioids (heroin is only one form of opiate, and typically the last resort for addicts.)

Currently, I am passionately involved in a collaborative effort across nonprofits, media, government, healthcare, and private citizens in Cleveland: The educational #KnowTheRx campaign – KnowTheRx.org. Daily, I am all at once saddened and horrified, and also grateful and hopeful that so many people are trying to help curtail this crisis.

4 of 5 heroin addicts started with opioid prescriptions. #KnowTheRx

A few stats to consider (many more can be found @KnowTheRx and KnowTheRx.org):

• 4 out of 5 heroin users started with prescription opioids

• 80% of all prescribed opioids on the planet are consumed in the United States (the US has 322 million people out of 7.5 Billion people.)

The opioid crisis, and everything you see about overdoses and Narcan reviving addicts, is not as simple as it appears. Legal prescriptions — over short timeframes — have incredibly high rates of abuse and then addiction for many.

Some people take opioids for short timeframes or even for chronic pain without issues; however that is sadly not the outcome for a huge slice of the population.

The good news is, people are working together to help solve this crisis.  It starts by knowing the risks of a simple opioid prescription and asking questions. #KnowTheRx

Please learn and share more about this, and PLEASE ask questions before you, your kids, your parents, or anyone else you know simply takes an opioid prescription without first learning and knowing the risks.  There are alternatives.

Know the risks. #KnowTheRx KnowTheRx.org

(Photos courtesy of cleveland.com and the KnowTheRx campaign.)

Please share your comments insights and ideas below.

Time and time again, I see organizations of all kinds, and in particular nonprofits, hoping to recapture results from another time by trying and retrying things that worked then. It’s an honest yet misguided trust in the idea that something known is more real – and better – than something unknown.

Yes, it is true that “back in the day” things were different. (Better, some say, and in some regards, that may be fair.)

Yet, we don’t live “back in the day,” we live now. And whether we love it or hate it, we humans have shifted our behaviors, attitudes, likes, and dislikes as the Now guides us.

To me, this is the definition of Status Quo:

Status Quo, n., Latin, for “We should probably change that.”

Status Quo is a secret traitor.

Status Quo wants you to ignore all signs and just “do what you’ve always done.”

While Status Quo whispers to us to “Keep doing what you’re doing, it’s always been this way,” what it really wants to tell us is different. It wants us to know,

“If you keep listening to me you will get the same results as every person, country, and organization who rested on their laurels — and didn’t listen to the people — did.” Which history tells us, is not what we want.

Status Quo, if it is being truthful, would secretly tell us to “Get out while you’re ahead! Try something new. Please!”

Why does this matter?

The future is made up of everything we do today. The faster we shift to flow and mesh with the people that matter to us and what they want, the more we participate in the future today.

If you look at the left side only, it’s an intriguing photo.  If you look at both sides together, one is much more striking and inspiring. Photo: Status Quo v. Now

Try this.

Ask yourself (and your team, or your board, or your group, or your friends or family) three questions, to follow.

Take the answers, and ask yourself how Status Quo feels about them. Also ask yourself what Status Quo would secretly tell you about them.

Also ask yourself what Sheryl Sandberg, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Lucy Peng, Jeff Bezos, Angela Merkel, Warren Buffett, Margaret Thatcher, Sergey Brin, Melinda Gates, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Nelson Mandela, Marissa Mayer, Peter Thiel, Ghandi, Ariana Huffington, Xi Jinping, Mary Meeker, DaVinci, Meg Whitman, Jack Ma, Oprah Winfrey, Mary Barra, Stephen Hawking, and your personal favorite hero (from now or the past) from business, nonprofit, or family and friends would say.

The three questions:

1. If we had a magic wand, what would we make happen immediately?

2. If we had to determine our future by stopping one thing and starting one thing, what would those be?

3. If we had unlimited time and money, what would be the main thing we would be doing?

All of these questions get to the heart of what matters; what’s important. None of them allow for Status Quo, because they are all in the future.  Because all are based on nothing we’re doing right now.

What we’re doing right now is getting us what we are getting right now. It cannot get us to the places in these questions, because they are in the future, where Status Quo is not likely to survive.

Questions are the root of all answers.

Ask these questions as a starting point to reflect on what’s possible – and what is very likely not possible with Status Quo, aka what’s happening today.

I’d love to hear from you about any ideas or insights! Please leave a comment or connect with me @CharityIdeas on Twitter or on LinkedIn.

As a huge aficionado of all things social media and tech, a few years ago this admonition about my phone photo-taking from my daughter, while on a hike, of  “Mom, stop!  Take pictures with your eyes and your brain!” in the woods gave me pause.

If a tree falls in the woods and we didn’t post a pic on Instagram, did it make a sound?

She was right, of course. I had gotten so used to the habit? idea? process? – nay, the compulsion – of photographing or videoing everything, that I was forgetting why humans enjoy experiences to start with.

Sure, wanting to capture memories and share them (sharing them in visual forms is new) is quite human. Storytelling is how all history has been passed on since the dawn of time. Social media is simply an exponentially faster and easier route to storytelling and sharing experiences.

Or is it?

I think of times I have been so bent on taking pictures – not to mention perhaps tagging places and people, adding hashtags and filters, cropping, sharing to multiple platforms – that I realized in horror that I had only witnessed the moment as a bystander, when what I really wanted as a human was to experience the moment.

Who is this captured memory for?  Could you relive the sights, smells, sounds, and emotions from this yourself in 2o years or did you miss it trying to find the right filter?

And that is exactly what Isabella pointed out. We all have the greatest camera ever right here, right now. “Take a picture with your eyes and your brain!”

Really, if everything in the digital world was suddenly deleted, we always still have that – same as it ever was. All of humanity – before Facebook, of course – remembered everything as the beautiful moment in which it happened.

Although I still love social media and technology, I almost never use headphones (in general), or look at my phone when walking, driving (duh, never do that), hiking, or otherwise “being Zen.”  When I walk the dog, the sites and sounds around me are my environment. Almost as if – it was my environment. 😉

When I drive my long commute (45 minutes) I sometimes listen to books and occasionally MUSIC WAY TOO LOUD! but most often, I enjoy the silence and use it as time to think.

Now when I walk in nature, I always have my phone, and am compelled to take pictures of beautiful things of course, but mostly when a beautiful thing summons a feeling I want to remember with a quick snap (also no headphones).

I do take and share tons of photos and videos at nonprofit events where my main goal is to share a feeling of inspiration, brought about by something happening – with others.

But as myself, even when traveling to China recently, I limited my “viewing through a lens” in favor of “viewing through my soul.”

When we all look back 40 years from now, we won’t recall what filter we used or how great we looked at a certain angle in a selfie. We won’t recall what hashtag it was, or who or where we tagged.

If we’re lucky, we’ll actually remember the feelings and emotions we had by being present, in that moment, seeing and feeling the sights and sounds and smells and the emotions and memories that were triggered.

Maybe we can all try to feel and BE  — instead of capture and share. A decade from now around a campfire, the sights and smells and emotions and thoughts and feelings of a moment will be the only things we recall.   We’ll tell real stories about real people and events because we’re real humans.  And if we’re not present when they’re happening, no funny Snap filter or Facebook live video will fully bring it back.

Think about whether you want all your memories to be accessible only by digital photos and social media, or if you want to “take a picture with your eyes and your brain!” and carry it around with you forever.

The good news is you don’t have to choose live memories or virtual, but think about which one *really* lives on forever if everything else gets deleted.

There’s a lot of turmoil in the world these days (as always.) Everyone is striving to have their voice and perspective heard, sometimes in productive ways, and sometimes not.

It made me think about my travels and the many people I’ve met who were “different” than me around the world, and even here in the United States.

Regardless of what our passport stamp says, we have a lot more in common that we might realize.

At the end of the day, it seems like most conversations about important things can be boiled down to a few ideas. Depending on who is talking, the ideas will be dressed in specific clothing and look slightly different. But, really it’s always a few similar ideas, presented in what appear to be slightly different ways.

Here are what I have found people to be saying consistently, regardless of their background, demographics, culture, income, religion, politics, or education.

Feeling like you want to be happy, and you want others to be happy, seems to be universal.

“I want to be happy.”

“I want to feel safe.”

“I want my family and friends to be secure and not worry.”

“I want to be connected to people.”

“I want to make a difference.”

“I want to feel like this life isn’t the end of everything; I want to stay connected to the world and people I love after I die.”

“I want the freedom to learn and grow and have adventures – and I want people I love to have that as well.”

If you think about all the people you know and care about, and all the people you’ve met anywhere, it’s likely they have/had some or all of these things in common. Maybe you know that because they said so directly, or maybe you gleaned it from conversations, or the things they did and the places they went.

There are undoubtedly many other fine nuances to these and other important ideas.

Think about it, though. Think of someone you feel like you have “nothing in common” with, because your religion or political viewpoint is different, or you grew up in completely different ways in different places. Do you think they have those same desires, if you stripped away the formalities?

Travel is a brilliant way to explore the world and make it feel both bigger and smaller at the same time.  We have some much in common!

Travel is one of my personal favorite things because the more you get into an unusual and different environment, the more you can viscerally feel and sense how similar people really are at the heart of it. Even if you are a different religion, in a different land, with a different political philosophy, speaking a different language, the similarities in hope, happiness, and love are remarkable and easy to feel.

Although there are many religions and viewpoints, the common values are often similar.

While we might all appear to be different, we’re really all using synonyms and saying very similar things in only slightly different ways.

What insights have you gotten from conversations or your travels?  Please share in the comments!

I am so appreciative of everyone who wants to hear my thoughts.  Thank you!

Sometimes the most simple things create impact. I love to talk about anything that creates impact.  This “small” thing caught me off guard with its effectiveness!

Here’s a personal experience you might relate to in light of all the smart frugal insights going on…

So a couple months ago I ordered some huck towels on Amazon – 50 for $20 – to replace paper towels in my home. (There were so many huck towels that I gave 10 to my mom and 10 to my sister.) Basically, these are simple towels you keep in a bowl by the sink that you use instead of paper towels.

Paper towels – thank you for your service!  We don’t need you much anymore now, though.  Huck towels are the way to go!

They’re super easy, and much better for most things. (I still use paper towels when I put bacon on a platter to drain the grease.)

Today I somehow had all the towels in the wash at the same time and really felt – like I hadn’t in months – how often I used them. I grabbed other towels but realized that I probably went for “something” 10 or 15 times while cooking, 5-10 times while tidying the counter, and several times just doing whatnot.

Drying your hands is a big culprit.

All those quick “dabs and tosses” could be adding up without thinking about it!

How may times a day do you dab your clean hands on a paper towel?  If you’re like me, it’s lots.  Lots of sheets of paper towels that could stay trees.

I also realized that I used to go through a Sam’s Club allotment (12 rolls? 18?) of paper towels maybe every couple weeks, but one roll now lasted about a month or more.

And, it is so much better to have a proper heavy-ish towel for anything instead of a paper towel. Cleaning, microwaving (except things with cheese?), tidying, snacking – so much better. Sturdy! Also – everything comes out in the wash.

I initially wondered if it would be “worth it” from a convenience standpoint. It’s immensely better actually. Picture anything you want to do, but with something 100x sturdier – it wins every time.

Logistically, I throw the “heavily used” aka “gross” ones into a special bin under the sink – like you’d do with a paper towel for the trash – into a cute small laundry bin.

Surprisingly – or not – most small chores a paper towel would do, don’t really dirty a towel. So, there’s not much overall laundry on behalf of this effort. For example, dabbing your clean hands to dry them doesn’t create much mess. Ditto being adjacent to a snack.

Snacks are the best…no need to bring innocent paper towels into it though!  Huck towels (or any kitchen towel) are sturdier, even to just to wrap around a snack for a minute.

And when there is a certain need for cleanup (pet messes?), it’s something no mere paper towel could handle anyway. 😉

I’ve saved dozens of paper towel rolls (and their cost) per week or month and actually have a better experience at the same time.

Surprisingly, this is one thing that effectually (feels better, works better, easier, cheaper) is all positive, no negative from me. Absolutely, this is one of the most painless ways to save $10 a week AND help the environment that exists out there.

Best simple “eco-friendly” move I’ve made so far, easily.