5 things that happen when you volunteer

Volunteering isn’t always easy. We tend to be busy and taking a night or weekend to help others often sounds great at first, and less great as the volunteer opportunity approaches. But volunteering can produce amazing things! Here are five things that happen when you volunteer:

1. You build relationships. If you are volunteering with friends, you will become better friends. If you are volunteering with co-workers, you will become a better team. The shared experience of volunteering makes an impact on your relationships.
2. It sharpens your thinking. When you volunteer, you are likely to be around people with different experiences from your own. That means you can talk to them and learn from them to sharpen your thinking and grow as a person or professional.
3. It boosts your confidence. There is something about helping others that makes you feel better about yourself.
4. It brings focus. Volunteering exposes you to issues in your community and around the world that are important. In doing that, it helps you to focus 0n what is truly important in your life rather than what is simply urgent.
5. You help people. At its core this is what volunteering is about, re-focusing our attention so that we can spend concentrated time in helping others. You are helping real people that are impacted by your effort.