What are you going to do for someone else today?

What are you going to do for someone else today?

Do you remember how it feels when a complete stranger does something nice FOR YOU? It might be something simple like holding a door open, or letting you out of a side road into the heavy traffic in front of them.

Have you ever been in a situation where you were desperate, a situation where you prayed help would come along? If help did arrive, do you remember how you felt?

Helping others is more than just a good deed, it makes you feel better and more positive, and it makes the person you helped feel better about themselves.

Many motivational speakers talk about the need for positive thinking in success. If you don't believe in yourself and you don't believe you can succeed, you wont.

So where am I leading you with this? Let me tell you a little true story.

Before my wife and I started our online business, we were in a situation that just went from bad to worse. We were about to lose out house, our car, everything. We had both already lost our jobs and the future looked bleak. We put the house up for sale in October and in the November of that year we had a buyer, so we had planned to move back to my wifes place of birth - Tenerife, in January.

Then on the 21st December, that buyer pulled out saying he had decided to buy a car instead ;o(

Our world fell apart. We had stopped showing the house to anyone else and now we did not have a buyer. Christmas was a sad time. It was very difficult to think positively about anything, and without that positive thought, things always seemed to go against us.

Over the Christmas period my wife and I agreed to try positive thinking and see if it could get us out of the hole we were sinking deeper and deeper into. We were desperate and prepared to try anything. I was familiar with a book called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

You can get a free copy at:
http://www.milliondollarbookshelf.com/books/tagr/index.php

We started visualisation every day, imagining our lives back in Tenerife.

In January we started showing the house again. In the first week we had two families come to see our house on the same day. Later that day, one couple phoned us and told us they wanted to offer the full asking price. The day after that the other family phoned and said they wanted it too. Things were finally looking up, and it seemed that the more positive we were, the better things went for us.

That is all in the past now. Today, my wife and I both have a simple pop up program on our computers that randomly displays our goals for the future during the day. We are both more positive.

It is amazing though when times get tough, how our earnings seem to mirror our level of positivity. Our worse months this year (financially) have been when we were forced to move out of a flat we were renting from one of my wifes "best friends". Then the new house we moved into could not have a telephone installed for a couple of months (meaning we had to make alternative arrangements for our internet connection so we could run our business). These were times when it was very hard to stay positive and our online earnings eerily mirrored our level of positivity.

Hocus pocus? Maybe. But staying positive and focused has certainly helped us to a better life. In return, we try to help others, knowing how even little kind gestures can make someone else feel happier and more positive. I have no doubt that you get back what you give in this world, and the more we seem to give, the more we get back.

OK, what triggered off this article?

Yesterday, my wife and I went to pay for our shopping at the cash desk marked "Priority for Future Moms". This was set up at the supermarket so that pregnant women would not have to stand waiting in long queues. There is another cash desk for people with disabilities, and another for deaf people. We were told by the supermarket officials to just go up to the till, the cashier would see my wife and let her through to the front.

We went to the end of the queue. Two men (who I shall call Bert & Ernie) were in front with large trolleys of shopping. The cashier looked up, saw my wife and then turned back to Bert and started to put his items through the bar code reader. My wife stopped the cashier and pointed out that she was pregnant (8 months pregnant so it was quite obvious) and that this till was set up so she didn't have to wait in the queue.

The cashier was not very helpful but after a few minutes and my wifes refusal to wait quietly, the cashier did tell her to come to the front. That's when things turned nasty. Bert & Ernie verbally attacked my wife saying she had no right to come in here and push them to the back of the queue. The cashier stayed quiet. My wife explained that this till was set up for pregnant women and she had every right. Bert & Ernie told her she was wrong. The cashier stayed quiet. Bert & Ernie then went on to shout the most sexist remarks at my wife I have ever heard in public. The cashier stayed quiet.

I suppose that having lived in Spain for the last 7 years or so I should be use to the sexist nature over here, but what happened yesterday did shock me. My wife was very shaken by the whole incident and wanted to leave the shop. However, before leaving she did fill in a complaint form. It is our hope that the supermarket will better train their staff so that this does not happen to other pregnant women (most of whom wont complain because they accept that they are living on a "mans island"). If they don't want to enforce these priority cashier desks, they should not advertise them.

This is the second time my wife has written a complaint about that cash desk. The first time the supermarket phoned my wife saying that the cashier denied the event ever took place.

Will things ever change? It does not look good, but I sincerely hope so. I especially hope that the two men involved will learn a little bit of compassion and understanding, and think of other people for a change instead of seeing the world revolve around themselves. Until they do, I suspect they will continue living in a world that makes them bitter instead of the World I know exists - one where happiness is possible.

So, back to my original header for this article. What are you going to do for someone else today?

If natural laws do exist as described in "Think and Grow Rich", what will those laws deal out to you for your actions today?