[2022-08-12] A strategy for generosity
This week's newsletter from Atomic Habits author James Clear includes a brilliant idea to take action the moment we are inspired to be generous. Clear quotes journalist and writer Oliver Burkeman, who shares this strategy for generosity:
Whenever a generous impulse arises in your mind—to give money, check in on a friend, send an email praising someone's work—act on the impulse right away, rather than putting it off until later.
When we fail to act on such urges, it's rarely out of mean-spiritedness, or because we have second thoughts about whether the prospective recipient deserves it. More often, it's because of some attitude stemming from our efforts to feel in control of our time. We tell ourselves we'll turn to it when our urgent work is out of the way, or when we have enough spare time to do it really well; or that we ought first to spend a bit longer researching the best recipients for our charitable donations before making any, et cetera.
But the only donations that count are the ones you actually get around to making. And while your colleague might appreciate a nicely worded message of praise more than a hastily worded one, the latter is vastly preferable to what's truly most likely to happen if you put it off, which is that you'll never get around to sending that message.
I can relate to Burkeman's explanation of why we put off action, especially the notion that we'll do something when we have enough time to do it really well. I'll delay returning a telephone message until I think I have sufficient time to devote to the caller. I'll put off making a donation to a charity because I'm in the middle of something and convince myself that I'll get to it later. I'll procrastinate sending a thank-you card to an influential person from my past because I want the message to be perfect.
As I wrote this post, I added a reminder to my calendar to finally send the letter to the elementary school teacher who instilled in me my love for grammar (Influential people). I'm embarrassed that I still haven't gotten around to this despite having thought about it more than 10 months ago and despite having the contact information to do so, thanks to the work of a friend. Adding a commitment as a reminder on my Google Calendar is the most effective means I have found for getting things done. Unlike an item on a to-do list (which I may or may not look at again after putting it on the list) a reminder comes back every day until I mark it as done.
The next time you are moved to be generous, act on it. I'm certain that it will be worth it.
