Why Giving Back is an Excellent Way to Grab Life

By Matthew Jones - Adventure Expert at Universal Dialect

At Universal Dialect, we talk a lot about grabbing life and turning it into an adventure. We try to encourage you to try new things, get out of your comfort zone, and make each day different and more exciting than the last. 

This is because, when we approach life with this perspective, we feel more positive about ourselves and the world around us. This positivity then gives us a boost in everything else that we do. It makes us more creative, more productive, and more intentional in our actions.

However, as we’ve said many times before, turning life into an adventure doesn’t mean living your life on the road, jet-setting around the globe, and doing adrenaline-rushing activities at all times (although if this is how you want to live, good on you!) 

Instead, turning life into an adventure is all about your mindset and point of view. If you learn to let go of your expectations, and if you become more open to the surprises life can throw your way, the parts of your life you once thought were mundane can become extraordinary.

There are many ways to develop this mindset, but one is to start embracing the good you can get from giving back to your community. We all know that helping those around you is a rewarding experience, but here are some ways it can help you change your mindset and grab life each and every day.

Try Something New

Probably one of the most fundamental ways giving back can help you turn life into an adventure is that it gives you the chance to try something new. After all, that’s basically what an adventure is: an opportunity to do something you’ve never done before.

For most of us, however, even though we know doing new things is fun, sometimes it’s difficult to convince ourselves to take action. This is because so many of us still struggle to do things just for us. But when your motivation is to help others and to improve the community in which you live, it’s often easier to act. 

Then, once you experience how branching out can positively impact your life, you’ll start looking for new opportunities to do it, which will slowly but surely turn your life into one giant adventure.

Meet New People

When you think back to some of your more memorable adventures, chances are the people you shared them with stand out as the part that made that experience so special. This is because there are few stronger sensations than that of human connection, which means you must seek out ways to meet new people with diverse backgrounds if you want to grab life and turn it into an adventure.

Unfortunately, in today’s fast-paced, high-tech world, it can sometimes be difficult to find that human connection. People are so caught up in their own world that it can be tough to break through. 

Giving back, though, helps to break down the barriers we set up around us and encourages us to connect. This is because when you spend time with people to provide a service for the community, you’re gathering with a group of people that is made up of entirely unique individuals but that shares a common goal of trying to make the world they live in a better place. This is a powerful way of breaking the ice, and it can lead to meaningful connections which will dramatically improve your life. 

Experience New Ways of Life

Giving back also gives you the chance to come into direct contact with people who have tremendously different lived experiences than you. For example, if you spend some time working at a homeless shelter, or if you do some work with those with disabilities, you’ll be exposed to perspectives shaped by radically different circumstances than those that have defined your life. 

This is an incredible experience largely because you’re going to realize just how similar people are. It’s easy to identify and dwell on our differences, but this often hinders our ability to see the oneness that defines all of humanity and even life itself. 

When you work with such individuals, you will have a tremendous opportunity to listen to their stories, and this will open your eyes to the interconnectivity of all things. And when this happens, life becomes far more exciting because you will realize how everything matters, which makes it easier to get excited about things you may have previously considered unimportant.

Inject Positivity into Everything You Do

If you’ve ever had the chance to do some sort of community service, you’ve no doubt experienced the natural high that came afterward. There’s something about knowing what you did, no matter how big or small, made a difference in someone’s life. 

Of course, spending an afternoon cleaning the beach isn’t going to stop the pollution of our oceans, but it does help, and the more you give back, the more difficult it will be for anyone to convince you otherwise. 

Building this experience into your everyday life can dramatically change the way you look at life. This is because there are so many things we do that we think don’t matter, and this often leaves us feeling unfulfilled, or worse, empty. 

Giving back pushes these negative thoughts out of your mind and reminds you that each one of your actions not only affects you but also those around you. 

This will help you grab life and live with more adventure because it helps develop the mindset that something good can come from every moment, which makes every minute of every day precious and full of opportunity. And once you start thinking and viewing life like this, you’ll see an improvement in nearly every aspect of your life, ranging from your mood to your productivity to your relationships and much more.

Give Back and Grab Life

There are so many reasons to spend time giving back to your community and those who live in it. But as you can see, one of the most significant is that it can dramatically reshape the way you think about life. 

The time you spend helping others will get you out into the world to meet people and try new things, which is essentially what an adventure is all about. This means that your next adventure is never too far away. So, if you’re looking for a way to make your time on this planet more exciting, look for some opportunities to give back and start grabbing life.