Surprising Benefits Of Volunteering

Accept the fact that we have to treat almost anybody as a volunteer.
Peter Drucker

Be of service. Whether you make yourself available to a friend or co-worker, or you make time every month to do volunteer work, there is nothing that harvests more of a feeling of empowerment than being of service to someone in need.
Gillian Anderson

Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen volunteer to protect and defend this country and all its citizens, and do so with honor, integrity and excellence. Our nation continually asks them to do more and more, with less and less.
Allen West

The vast majority of the American people are hard-working taxpayers who take responsibility for their families, go to work every day, they pay their mortgage on time, they volunteer in their community.
Marco Rubio

As a kid, I was always reminded that nothing is for free on this planet. That determined me to fight my way to reach a goal in my life so that I can earn my living and live a respectable life.

As a teenager, I was introduced the values of offering your services to the community and was also considered mandatory so that the resume can be decorated for a reputed college admission. This service helped me develop my skills while socializing and having fun as I made contacts for possible employment in the near future.

As the years rolled by, the benefits of offering ones services for free, dawned upon me. The perks could be seen inside out as a person as it started giving me a feeling of self-worth and respect while helping me improve the quality of life of others.

Volunteering has enriched me in many ways, and some surprising benefits are:

• Helps to increase social and relationship skills

Volunteering is a two way street. As it benefits you to make new friends and expand your network and social skills, it also helps the cause you are helping out to reach new dimensions.

Volunteering helps strengthen your ties to the community and helps broaden your support network while exposing you to people with common interests.

Reserved or shy People need to volunteer since it gives them the opportunity to practice and develop their social skills as they work on a common cause and that gives them an opportunity to connect with others.

• Helps enrich the mental and physical health of a person

Studies have indicated that helping others unconditionally kindles happiness. Volunteering is directly related to happiness.

As man offers to do something for free, he is also working on climbing the ladder of his mental and physical welfare by giving himself a boost of self confidence, self esteem and providing a natural sense of accomplishment.

Volunteering helps the body to be on the move, which is essential for retired people. This helps them to be physically active and mingle with like minded people that tend to keep them mentally charged thus, avoiding them to be isolated and go into depression.

• Helps advance career

Volunteering usually comes to the rescue of an individual who plans on changing careers. This gives him an opportunity to practice necessary skills used in that particular workplace while giving him exposure to many dynamics of working to handle teamwork, communication, and crisis management to name a few.

Gaining experience via volunteering in a career that an individual wants to experience is a bonus along with developing contacts, and enriching himself mentally and physically.

• Helps bring fun and fulfillment to life

Volunteering is fun since an individual is exploring his interests and passions as he is escaping from the day-to-day routine of work or school or family commitments. Since all are collected there to bring a common change, there is creativity and a vision with zero stress and competition. This helps volunteers bring in a fun and fulfillment to their respective lives while trying to shape the organization towards a brighter future.

• Helps create a balance within an individual

Volunteering helps create a vision by helping an individual make a better community as he meets different people who have a general goal in their spare time. It helps an individual see a different way of life and new places while matching their personality and interests.

As they say, “Volunteer…it’s good Karma.”

Your passion to develop the organization’s goals with an open mind, positivity and compassion, will not only help the community but also enrich you with values while keeping you grounded under all circumstances as you accumulate brownie points towards a bright future.