Four Simple But Powerful Ways To Make Our Home & Work Better

Most of us want to make our work and home communities better. With so much going on, it can be hard to manage it all and still have a positive impact. So, to help I've put together four focused and meaningful ways I've used to make the places and lives of those around us better.

Let's get started with the first.

Ask

To help serve others, let's ask those we care about what they need or want and how we can help them accomplish it. If we just start helping people without this communication, we can end up looking foolish when our ways are not the help they wanted.

When it comes to home life, there have been numerous time when I've sought to help my wife only to discover it was unwanted or unimportant. For this reason, I've found it much more fruitful to ask my wife what she needs and how I can help her. My goal is to do this in the morning, throughout the day and in the evening. In asking her about how I can help, I know I'm tackling what is most pressing to her.

When it comes to working with new clients, they know more about their business and what they need than I do. For this reason, I tend to ask what the clients need help with and start our work engagement there. As I work with them in the areas they've ask for help, I observe and document other opportunities that we can shift to once we've completed our starting point projects.

Let's commit to constantly ask how we can serve our family, friends and clients.

Eagerly Respond

In our effort to serve others, let's establish in our minds our willingness to help them or clearly communicate when we can't. When we're engaged in work or personal life with someone who has a hard time asking and receiving help, it is especially important to eagerly respond to the ask for help. We want them to feel safe asking and we want to be honest when we can't or need to delay our support. It's much more pleasant to ask people who want to help us and respond eagerly when we do.

Let's commit to eagerly respond to the ask with action or a pleasant no.

Opportunistic Eyes

In moments it can be obvious, although not always convenient, how we could help someone. When it's the small things there is little risk and time involved in helping them.

When we see something that can be fixed, cleaned or resolved very quickly and we've got an established relationship, we can opportunistically help while we're doing what we're doing. We're simply piggybacking on the energy of our current task to help someone else.

My wife loves different types of foods, so if I'm at a restaurant or bakery that she'd enjoy meeting with a client or friend, it's not much effort to grab her something on the way out. Working from home also gives me numerous opportunities to do many different little things to help contribute to the family but don't distract or takeaway from my work.

With clients, I'm checking out valuable content daily on a variety of topics. Many times these topics touch on issues, problems and opportunities my clients are facing. It's an easy few clicks to share this insight with them, but it can have a tremendous impact on the relationship and their context.

Let's commit to seeing the opportunities and taking the small extra steps to address them.

Systematic Help

When it comes to things we know are needed and cherished, let's commit to take care of the observed but unmet responsibilities.

For me at home, I came up with a list of things to tackle on Saturday that need to get done but were not getting done or being requested by my wife. On my own accord, I take care of these tasks every week like clockwork.

In work life, I tend to primarily engage with business owners who are busy running their company, managing people and juggling many different responsibilities at once. When they've committed to a budget for my services, I pro-actively identify how and when we'll direct our efforts. If needed, they simple need to alter what I've put together to better match their needs. Simply put, I make it as easy as possible for them to work with me and for me to help them grow their business.

In Conclusion

When we're asking how we can help, eagerly responding to the ask, jumping opportunistically on ways to serve, and systematically helping personally and professionally, we'll constantly be sustaining a positive and healthy community around us. On the work side, we likely always have grateful clients that want to work with us.