Mowing Someone Else’s Lawn Will Improve Your Day

We all know that being generous and helping people makes us feel good. Doing so doesn’t always have to cost a lot of money or take up a lot of time.

This week Tim Ferris shared a post from Alexandra Franzen detailing “50 ways to be ridiculously generous —and feel ridiculously good,” most of the ideas won’t break the bank to do, and many also only take a few minutes so they won’t take a ton of your day to execute.

While I definitely recommend checking out the full list for your own motivation, here are a few of my favourites that are entirely free:

• Find a local or street library near you and donate a book. Can’t find one? Start one.

• Be like Diane von Furstenberg and start your day by sending out one email specifically designed to help somebody else — without directly benefiting you at all — before you do anything else. Make introductions, send some encouragement, offer a helpful resource or link.

• Prowl through your closet and donate some treasures to charity. You’ll de-clutter your wardrobe and help a struggling lady look like a star at her next job interview.

• Get outlandishly excited about a small piece of good news from a friend. (“You did WHAT? Just like THAT? You’re AMAZING!”) Model the kind of unbridled enthusiasm that you want to see in the world.

• Make an 8Tracks or Spotify playlist for your favourite human. Extra credit: give your playlist a special “reason” or “theme,” like, “Listen to this while you’re getting ready for your first date with Zach!” or, “Pump-yourself-up music to play before you deliver your TEDx Talk. You’re going to do GREAT.”

Again, the idea here isn’t to spend a ton of money. While being “generous” can obviously mean cutting some large checks, it can also mean just being generous with your time or your praise.

You’re also not restricted to just doing things on this list. Think of something simple you can do to improve the life of someone around you and do it. Mow your neighbour’s lawn while you’re mowing your own, or just pick their paper up off the driveway and walk it to their front door.