Thursday, December 10, 2009

Spreading Positivity - Addictive, Contagious, & Rewarding

Dear Gentlemen,

As we enter the last month of the year, the temperature has dipped tremendously and the east coast was blessed with our first snowfall of the winter. The holidays are coming up which means there will be tons of celebration with your family and friends. Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and many other holidays around this time all revolve around the common theme of giving. Now most of the postings on ForGentlemen have been solely about improving oneself to better oneself on the inside and out. But there are ways to become more gentleman like than simply doing things for yourself, and that's by doing things for others. Sure holding a door open for someone or carrying something heavy for an elder might be followed with a "Oh what a gentleman!" remark but I'd like to encourage everyone (including myself) to become better men by simply doing more and more for OTHERS.

I was G-Chatting with my girlfriend this morning and she linked me this website GivesMeHope.com or GMH. Now I, like most people loved visiting the F.M.L (F*ck My Life) website reading about all the misfortunes of all these people and how funny some of them were. It gave me a good laugh but at the end that's all it gave me: a good laugh. GivesMeHope.com is the complete opposite; it consists of tiny blurbs about all these acts of kindness done by people around the world and how it gave them hope or inspiration to do the same to others. I started reading them one by one and I was hooked. I think I read around 5 pages of good deeds and there were just so many things that inspired me to WANT to become a BETTER person, not through my clothing, not through my knowledge on things, but to improve myself through other people. Here are some GMH moments that really motivated me.



- My 24 year old neighbor is in the military. He has a wife and 2 year old son. He has cancer in both kidneys. He is said to have 6 months to live. Instead of staying home with his wife and child, he has gone back to Iraq to die. He's doing this so his wife will get all the possible benefits from his death. His sacrifice, selflessness, and love GMH

- Today, my grandmother died. I took a walk to try and calm down but ended up sitting on a park bench crying. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and a man handed me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. He said, "I walked past here earlier and you were crying, so I got you these flowers", and walked away. Kind strangers like him GMH

- There's a really beautiful freshman in our school who a mentally challenged sophomore boy has a huge crush on. She got asked by at least 10 people to the winter formal dance, but she decided to go with the mentally challenged boy. Beautiful girls who are also beautiful inside GMH.

- One Christmas season I worked at Wal-Mart in the jewelry department. A little boy about 10 yrs old came up to the register with a $40 jewelry box he said was for his mom. As I rang up the total, he pulled out 3 gift cards with his name on them. Instead of buying something for himself with his gift cards, he spent them on his mom! His thoughtfulness GMH!!

- Last night, over the phone, my friend told me he was considering suicide. I didn't know what else to do, so I sent him the link to GMH. He texted me this morning saying that he stayed up all night reading every post, and that he could never leave a world that contained such beauty. GMH


Closing Words: Gentlemen, each and every one of us is blessed to be given ONE life to live. How do you want to live it? How do you want people to think of you? Being known as the most stylish, or trendiest is by no means a bad thing at all but to be known as the guy who was honestly just an overall kind person will affect others in a much more impacting, positive, and inspirational way. Have you ever done a good deed for someone and felt really good about it? This feeling should be and needs to be felt on a more regular basis and once you start doing things for others, they will notice and reciprocate your actions unto others as well. The next time you see someone who needs help, help them. Think of the bigger picture. I wonder from time to time that when I am old and on my death bed that when I look back on my life will I be proud of how I lived? Did I really impact this world during my stay here in a positive way? How will people remember me? I really think by transforming our lives in a way to help others, will actually help us personally 10x more. I think our entire outlook on life will be better and it will really be evident in how we dress, act, and handle ourselves in this world. I'm sure all of you have heard the saying "Be all that you can be", I couldn't agree with this anymore.

7 comments:

  1. I love this post mate. I hope people react on what you've picked up on!

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  2. I really don't know how people would react to a post like this since it really has nothing to do with fashion at all. Thanks for the input though Jake!

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  3. I think this post GMH lol. Great post man, keep this up. I'll probably be visiting that site as well.

    Enjoy your holidays and have a Happy New Year!

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  4. followed, added to blogroll. keep the good posts coming man.

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  5. Haha G_regs Thanks for the comment and enjoy your holidays as well

    Lefty - Whats up man :) Thanks for the comment as well

    Acoustic - Thanks and the title of your blog is awesome

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  6. Great post , great website which is GMH . That remenber me that we can trust people and that there we can have hope in Humanity .

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