To pay it forward means that instead of paying someone back for a good deed, you do a good deed for someone else. Maybe you’ll surrender your first-place position in a long line at the 7-Eleven when someone behind you is in a hurry. On a rainy day, you might hand an umbrella to someone who needs it. While you’re at it, you can get some pet food for a homeless man’s dog, or give money to the person in front of you at the grocery store who came up short. The possibilities are endless. Here are ten reasons to pay it forward.
- When you pay it forward, you’re usually changing someone else’s circumstances for the better. Sometimes, you’re saving another person’s life without even realizing it.
- Paying it forward inspires generosity and compassion. All too often, we think too much about our own needs without considering how our behavior affects others. What we say and do matters. Ultimately, the person paying it forward grows as much as the person receiving the act of kindness.
- Paying it forward alters our cultural identity. We affect the climate of our three main realms—home life, the workplace, and sociable places. People who act more altruistically in all phases of their lives make the world more bearable.
- Paying it forward introduces you to new people who might enrich your life, both emotionally and financially. People you would have never met under different circumstances sometimes become pivotal players in your life.
- By paying it forward, you practice credibility and accountability by considering others’ needs. This carries over into everything you do. You feel better about yourself because you’re trying to make everyone’s lives better, especially your own.
- Others trust you more readily and take you into their confidence when they see you paying it forward. They respect you more because they have less reason to doubt you.
- Paying it forward erases ego. It’s about all of us living together and sharing the moment. This takes a little courage. We have to accept who we are in this vast expanse. There’s no point in just standing at the edge of the ocean and sticking your toe in the water. Paying it forward is when you dive in and surf with the dolphins.
- Paying it forward is also self-affirming. Granted, pure altruism doesn’t exist in the sense that we act on our own behalf even when we do good deeds for others. But so what? We’re still performing kindly acts.
- You grow creatively by paying it forward on a regular basis. Helping others requires imagination. Moreover, there’s no telling what those you help are thinking — they’re studying formative, unexpected moments that reconfigure their life narratives.
- Paying it forward becomes an essential part of your critical thinking process, and this extends to future generations. If you have children, they’ll see this in you and carry the same tradition forward. They’ll be more rational, humane creatures.
On a final note, paying it forward alters your neural network. This leads to reflexive behavioral changes. Some people even schedule pay-it-forward moments into their daily routines because kind acts make them feel good. Everyone needs help and attention at times. It’s up to us to act when the opportunity presents itself.
