written by Ben Alexander

#1. Be useful and DO something every day.

Do something every single day that is measurable and productive. It could be exercise, a chore around the house, gardening, etc. I work from home 99% of the time, today I was closing new clients over the phone and talking with my database expert about changes to one of our systems. I also did the dishes and went food shopping.

One of the roots of depression is the feeling that you are worthless, but if you DO something you can draw satisfaction from that, at least for that day.

This is why I take care of my own yard, at the end of the day it feels great to sit on my back porch in sweaty clothes and drink a beer while the sprinklers run over my freshly cut lawn.

If you work hard every day, and get stuff DONE you will sleep well and have a great sense of daily satisfaction.  

#2. Serve others.

This does not mean you have to go out and solve the homeless issue, this can be as simple as cooking a nice meal for your family or cleaning up your home. When you are focused outward you gain perspective on your own life.

This upcoming April I’m going on my third trip to Honduras to install water filters with my fellow Rotary club members and Pure Water for the World. Going there, and seeing how people struggle with everyday life makes me tremendously grateful for what we have here in the United States.

Serving others also translates into my business, by making Balloon Distractions BETTER I am serving the independent contractor Artists and Regional Partners who make our concept possible.

The flip side of serving others is doing NOTHING for anyone but yourself.
We all know people like this, they never lift a finger to do anything… and then they wonder why they have no friends and are wracked with depression. If you are a business owner and you don’t serve your clients and your team you will be OUT of business pretty fast!

Serving others can be as simple as going to a local nursing home and just spending time with the people who live there. You can volunteer to mentor a youth group in church each week, or volunteer to frame out a house with Habitat for Humanity. During the recession there were several empty houses on my street with knee-high weeds, I started cutting all those lawns on a regular basis, which kept my street looking decent until those empty houses eventually found buyers.

As a member of the local Rotary club here in Wesley Chapel I was fortunate to serve as the president of the club 2 years ago, my goal during my year of leadership was to grow the membership of the club and we were very successful.    

There are so may ways to serve others if you just look around….

So, if you are feeling down try my 2 suggestions for the next few weeks, let me know if it helped you feel better about life!