Serving Small: 10 Powerful Ways to Impact The World Around You One Person at a Time

When people hear us say that a life of serving is the ultimate benchmark of having “fired one’s excuses” their thoughts often go to their level of involvement in local charities, international relief organizations and their kid’s sports equipment drive. We support such big serving activities too.

At their best, these campaigns and causes can have a tremendous impact on the classroom, the community and the world.  They can teach citizenship, make a difference for those suffering with debilitating diseases and mountainous challenges, and help to rescue those suffering gross social injustices and poverty. But, at their worst, these big, public, serving activities can devolve into mandatory social obligations, feel far removed from real life, and even become “trendy.” Most of us have attended charity events that felt more like a place “to see and be seen.”  Or, we have received correspondence from a company whose charitable or ecofriendly campaign appeared to be nothing more than a thinly-veiled marketing attempt to be seen as caring.

We’d like to encourage you to expand your view of service by going “small,” by thinking with us about creative, highly impactful and, in many cases, anonymous ways of “serving small.” This type of serving is one-to-one, impacting those you know well and those you don’t but with whom your lives intersect daily.

Here are 10 easy but powerful ways you can start serving small:

1. Reach out to three of your LinkedIn connections each week and ask:  “What are you working on (more formal) or “what are you up to these days? (less formal, for a closer colleague or friend.)  Anything I can do to help?”
2. Text three people and simply say:  “I am thinking about you today, how are you doing with ______[insert challenge, big project, or blessing here.]  If you are spiritually-minded you might say, “I know you are [dealing with a big challenge/decision, etc.] Just wanted to let you know I am think about you and praying for you today.”
3. Keep a stack of Thank You cards on your desk.  Commit to mail one every day.  Tip: Create your own stunning postcard using a service like Vistaprint.com or your favorite photo sharing site. Our challenge:  If you do this for six months (180 cards) and it does not transform your life and bring you great joy, we will gladly provide you with a free book and a one-hour coaching session!
4. Perform one “random act of kindness” every week: Pay for the coffee of the person behind you at your favorite coffee shop or drive through. Drop off an anonymous gift at a friend’s house or even a neighbor you don’t know (unless the sticker on the door says, “insured by Smith and Wesson!”)
5. Call at least one out of town relative each week.  Start with your most senior relatives.  They will be delighted to hear from you and that you remembered them.
6. Introduce two people a week who should know each other (but don’t) for friendship, mutual business opportunities or because of a shared challenge. 
7. Don’t wait to be asked. Offer to help at least one friend a month with an event or project on which they could use assistance. Enhance your life and the lives of others by doing life together.
8. Write one letter of affirmation each week to someone who needs encouragement.  For a fresh impact, consider recording a short encouraging video and attaching it to an email.
9. Once a month, send someone who needs it a pair of movie tickets, a restaurant gift certificate or offer to baby-sit so they can get away for an evening.
10. We know someone who gives away one prized household item each year. It’s a radical idea but having seen immense poverty in their many trips around the globe, it helps them remember that “it is just stuff” and helps them hold onto material things loosely. Consider doing the same. Don’t just donate your rejects or worn out items, bless someone with your T.V., your computer, that table and chair set and watch what happens to your heart.

What will happen if you take your service to others to another level?  Your heart will grow and your life and the lives of others will be transformed.

Dr. Seuss described this “heart change” best in “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas:”

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!

“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.”

“Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!”

And what happened then? Well…in Whoville they say,

That the Grinch’s small heart Grew three sizes that day!

And the minute his heart didn’t feel quite so tight,

He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light,

And he brought back the toys! And the food for the feast!

And he, HE HIMSELF! The Grinch carved the roast beast!

 Are you currently “serving small?”  Are you willing to try it? If your heart or life changes by serving small, we’d love to know. Email and tell us your story at:  info@fireyourexcuses.com

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Dr. Bill Dyment and Dr. Marcus Dayhoff, co-authors of Fire Your Excuses