Reading the guest post about the Buried Life on Tim Ferriss’ blog, I stumbled on this paragraph:
The first person we ever helped was a guy named Brent. He wrote to us in broken English saying his biggest dream was to bring pizzas down to the nearby homeless shelter. Brent had himself spent three years living in that shelter and remembered fondly the days people brought in food because those were the times it felt like someone gave a damn.
Leaving aside the fact that pizza is horribly unhealthy, what’s preventing the rest of us from doing the same - going to the nearest homeless shelter with some food.
Positive psychology teaches us that one of the best ways to become happy is to do something for others. And it wouldn’t cost much. So this seems like a really cheap way to do something that does good and is going to make us feel really great.
So why don’t we?
Is it the fear of looking stupid? I mean, what if they don’t want it? Maybe they think we’re patronizing them? Maybe they’ve already eaten, or someone else arrives 2 minutes before us with even nicer pizzas? Or maybe we’re afraid of our physical safety?
It might also be that we haven’t thought about it. But now that you have (since you’re reading this) what would be holding you back?
Maybe you don’t know where to find a homeless shelter. But that’s a hurdle that can be easily overcome with a little use of the internet.
So at this point, what’s holding you back still?
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