2014 Giving Project – Introduction

I was checking Facebook after all the holiday festivities were finally over and saw the following post from my good friend, Tony Laidig:

“This morning I was thinking about my 365 Project when it occurred to me that some folks, perhaps you, would LOVE to take on a 365 challenge but have no desire to take photos every day. Here are a five ideas I came up with to inspire you to join in on the fun. I’m sure you can come up with MANY more!

1) Give $10 a Day: Find someone, preferably someone you don’t know, to give $10 to. Could be $5 or $20…it’s up to what you can do. After a year, you will have given away $3,650 and blessed 365 people!

2) Book a Day to a Child: It’s pretty easy to find quality books these days, so why not find amazing children’s books and give one to a new child every day? In the end, you will have had an impact on 365 children who will be grateful to have a new book!

3) An Article a Day: Some of you express yourselves more easily with words than with a camera, so why not inspire others daily by writing an article or blog post a day every day for a year? Just think, if you write just 500 words a day, by the end of the year, you will have written enough words for FOUR 45,000 word books!

4) A Recipe a Day: Wouldn’t it be cool to experiment with or create a NEW recipe every day for a year? Stick with a theme (like gluten-free desserts or soups) or span all the courses. By year’s end, you’ll have enough new recipes to create a pretty awesome cookbook, or, at the very least, some new family favorite meals!

5) A Friend a Day: Make it a point to meet and get to know one new person every day…and I mean IN PERSON, not on Facebook. An easy way to do this is to get involved locally…join a Meetup, take dance lessons, start painting or even walk the Mall every day! Perhaps not all the people you meet will develop into lifelong friendships, but imagine the chance you’ll have to make some new, divine connections!”

These ideas resonated with me over the weekend as I pondered what I could do each day. I’m a natural giver, and my word for 2014 is “Prosperity” so I already had in mind to financially give above and beyond what we regularly give. Giving is also my way of resetting in my own mind what’s important and reaching out to touch someone else. So while I’m getting started a little late, I’ll make up the past five first days of January by giving a surprise gift of $50 to a random someone.

My “giving” will be either $10 per day or a gift equaling a $10 value to someone. I’ll try to keep this blog updated as I go along, and I hope this post inspires you to do something in Tony’s list (or from your own imagination) as well.

If you receive a surprise gift from me this year, I ask that you continue the trend by paying it forward. I bet if every one of us focused on helping another each day of this year, countless thousands of lives will be changed! So, are you in? Will you join me in this challenge every day in 2014?

Photo courtesy Shutterstock, Watchara Ritjan