A little story about helping people.

Here's a little story about helping people.

One of the many valuable things I learned in college was finding a balance between saying "yes" and saying "no." Learning how to say "no" constructively was quite a task. I had a habit of always agreeing to things and saying "yes" constantly because I wanted to be involved and help people! Sounds easy enough right? However, I eventually found myself constantly leaving things early only to arrive at my next commitment late. I had crammed too many things into too short of an amount of time. However, I loved everything I was doing! I had to learn what things I could say "no" to or say something like "I can't personally help with this but I can refer you to someone great who maybe can." However, since college, I've had to take on the unexpectedly daunting task of starting over and finding all new things to be involved in. When I got my new job I started volunteering at the animal shelter here. I attended a few meetings for volunteers and found myself saying "I'll help!" to just about everything. I had to take a step back and remind myself what consequences that can have. I have since been working toward a healthy balance of work, my 2nd job, freelance writing and marketing on the side, being involved with the convention and visitors bureau, and more. 

So what does that have to do with Friday? Well, sometimes a spontaneous "yes" when you feel like maybe you should just say "no" can be just as beneficial as learning to say "no." I had also made a habit in college of saying "no" to things like going out and going to parties yet every time I went I always had a good time. So, Friday I went to pick up my best friend Kristin from the train station so we could leave together to see the musical at our college the next day. When I pulled into the train station I was discussing the Artist Signal contest with my friend Caleb and was on my bluetooth headset. I see that Kristin is standing with 5 people all wearing Cubs gear (woo!) and talking with them. She walks up to the car and I said "wow, you made friends already? jeeze!" to which she responded that one of the people saw my Carthage College sticker on my car and commented they went to Carthage as well. They had also gotten off at the wrong train stop (their cars were parked one station down) and needed to get to the next station. 

Now normally my response would have been something like "well that's their fault" or "too bad, we're in a hurry" (It was currently 6:30 pm and we had to eat, drop Kristin off at my house and I had to get to my 2nd job by 8 pm.) However, they were wearing Cubs gear, had gone to Carthage, and we were only about a mile away from the other station. So I sad "yes" and told them to pile in. One the probably no more than 5 minute drive to the next station I ended my conversation with Caleb, apologized and explained to them that we're working on a contest with my friends from XY Unlimited as well to win money for their music careers on Artist Signal. When I told them this they asked how they can vote. I had Kristin write the link to the site on the back of my business card and give them the card. They offered to go vote in return for my giving them a ride! I may have wasted a few minutes by driving them or I may have gained some free advertising and voters for the contest! I'd say it was a worthwhile investment if you ask me. 

No, I don't know whether or not they actually voted but I like to think they did. What I'm saying though is that sometimes that spur of the moment choice between yes and no can be difficult. Go with your gut and things may turn out better than you expected. Also, say YES to voting for XY Unlimited and Caleb McGinn on Artist Signal now! I mean c'mon look at those faces! Okay, well maybe not those faces. However, XY currently has more voters than anyone in the contest. You can vote as often as every hour. So if everyone who has voted so far voted every hour just for one day we could take the lead!