Service To Others: One Perspective

I want to let you know about a podcast you might enjoy (a podcast, of course, is only an Internet radio program, in case you don’t know the term yet …). Just close this window, go to our homepage at www.thehumanityproject.com and then click on The Humanity Podcast. At the top of the podcast page, you’ll see a link to the latest show, called “Service To Others: A Personal Story.” Click on that link to open it. The 15-minute program you’ll hear is, indeed, personal. At least to me. It’s my own story.

You’ll listen to my honest, very personal explanation about how and why The Humanity Project is focusing our mission on one idea: We want to help people live more happily through service to others. It’s that simple. We were always about helping you become healthier, more well-adjusted – more fully the person you really are. Now, though, our approach to this effort has changed. That’s because we have come to believe the best way to help you help yourself is by teaching you to focus on the needs of others. Recent scientific research into happiness backs up this conclusion: People feel happier when they sincerely work to make other people happy. The new edition of The Humanity Podcast talks about the 30-year process I went through to reach this belief in my own life. Maybe hearing a bit about my struggles will help you somehow in your own search for a happier way of life.

Springing Ahead

Somehow the start of spring, or any new season, excites me. It’s as if an important page of the calendar has been turned and a new, more promising chapter has begun. A new season always brings change. Different weather, different activities. A different vibe in the air in some hard-to-define way. And that seems especially appropriate just now here at The Humanity Project on this first day of spring.

We are moving ahead into something very new. The Humanity Project is committed to helping people live more happily through dedicated service to others. We teach the importance of a giving lifestyle, showing individuals how to translate their unique personalities, interests and talents into any type of action that aids their fellow human beings. This contributes at the grassroots level to a more well-adjusted society by improving life both for those who receive the assistance and those who give it. That’s our new, more clearly defined mission from now on. (Though it’s not reflected throughout our website yet – we’re doing a complete redesign but that takes some time. And money.) We’re already planning a new interactive feature that will show you how to adopt this giving lifestyle. It will use the techniques we created for “A Human Drama,” which is on this website now. But it will be much shorter, lighter, more fun – and useful to anyone who wants to devote just 20 minutes to taking part in this multi-media experience. We’ll soon announce many more changes to this website, as well as hands-on programs in the community to help accomplish our mission. We have a busy, but exciting, spring season ahead of us here at The Humanity Project. And all of it has one purpose: to help you help yourself … by helping others.

The New Humanity Project

At last, we’re ready to tell you what we’ve been working toward for months: The Humanity Project will have a more tightly focused mission from now on. So what is that mission? Are we totally changing what this group has been about during its first several months of existence?

This is what we’re talking about. The Humanity Project now is dedicated to helping individuals improve their lives through service to others. But we want you to do that by expressing rather than smothering who you really are – searching for opportunities to transform your unique personality, interests and talents into any type of action that helps our fellow human beings. Recent psychological research supports the idea that happiness is most fully achieved, not by trying to feel good but rather by trying to do good. Our organization already is working toward a complete website redesign, providing new resources to assist your efforts at a giving lifestyle. (We really need donations to help pay for this redesign. Just go to our “Join The Project” page, where you can make a safe, tax-deductible credit card contribution.)

Here’s just one example of the kind of thing we will be doing. We plan to offer links on our website to other nonprofit groups around the country, with specific and frequently updated volunteer opportunities in many different areas of interest. Live in Vermont and love kids? We’ll tell you where to go to help out. But that’s only one part of the picture. Stay tuned – in the weeks ahead, we’ll be announcing many other specific ways that we’re going to help you to help others. We think that will make you happier. And that’s been the real goal of The Humanity Project from the beginning: to build a better society from the ground up, person by person. This group’s new approach allows us to do that in a way we think is most effective. And in the process, we’ll each help many other people who need our assistance. Welcome to The New Humanity Project!
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Talk To Us

We know you’re out there. We see the growing numbers of visitors to The Humanity Blog, which of course you’re reading right now. We also have a fast-growing audience for our popular podcasts on this website, something you can find by closing out of this blog to return to our home page. Then just click on The Humanity Podcast and select one of the 30 programs available at no cost, each with original music and original commentary.

So why do we get so little feedback? We want to hear from you. I can’t imagine you feel we’re doing everything right – or wrong. We’re eager for your thoughts, suggestions, ideas, gripes or compliments. If you don’t want to post a comment in this space, you can talk to us in other ways. Go to our “Contact Us” page, which gives you an email link to chat with us. There’s also a phone number in case you’d rather talk that way. As we move forward with our new plans, The Humanity Project will offer more specific ideas that can improve your life. We want to hear your thoughts as you discover our new mission and new content in the days and weeks ahead. Thanks! And you might want to check out the next podcast, “Asian Culture and The Humanity Project,” which will be posted this Friday. It will give you the first real glimpse at the exciting changes coming at The Humanity Project.