Giving, philanthropy, humanitarian & performing altruistic acts boosts our performance levels.

A long line of research including a recent study of over 2000 people showed that acts of altruism decreased stress & strongly contributed to enhanced mental health. So if you want to be healthier, happier and have less stress… give.

There was a recent study of 46 people who were all given $20. Half were asked to spend the money on themselves, yet the other half was asked to spend the money on other people, maybe give it to charity; take someone deserved out to lunch or just spend it on an experience for someone else. This study showed that the people that spent it on themselves were not as happy as the ones that gave to others.

What this study shows is that when we give, this ignites our self worth to humanity and connects our heart, which in turn allows us to feel good about the act and about ourselves.

Bob Buford, author of Half Time talks about the difference between success & significance. He talks about how most people look at success as a fatter wallet, and the possession of materialistic stuff. He then speaks about the importance of significance and how some of us have a half time in our lives where we turn our focus from success to significance, which is, to make a difference in others lives.

Doing altruistic or significant acts boosts our happiness and performance levels as we gain stimulation and a sense of achievement within the act of giving.

My wife and I started a non-for-profit Foundation recently, working with the true poorest of the poor. Most people think they know who the poorest of the poor is but the reality is that the poorest people in the world are the children living with a disability in developing worlds, as they are even outcasts from their own families.

What we have found is that even the local community in the villages where we are working, have become more driven and motivated from seeing that we are helping, thus they have been inspired to help as well.

Altruistic acts are not necessarily starting a Foundation, but it can be as simple as opening the door for someone else, shouting someone to lunch or one of my favourites is when I drive through McDonalds with my kids, we pay for the cars meal behind us, we are all so excited about doing this that it boosts our energy and happiness levels.

What are you doing right now within your teams to ignite them to think about adding value to others… thus boosting high performance within your bottom line!

We are seeing a shift towards a push of an inclusive working environment and you need to be on board!

There are three main areas of inclusion where we need to close the gap, and these are: Disability Inclusion, Social Inclusion and Cultural Inclusion. I’ve recently attended a number of conferences about people living with a disability entering inter the workforce, so we are going to focus on this.

20% of the world’s population lives with a disability. That’s 850 Million people, or 4 million people in Australia. Yet 88% of disabilities are invisible. People with a disability have a disposable income of approximately $26 billion per annum, so chances are right now your workplace your customers, your shareholders and your suppliers will have people that live with a disability.

Disability inclusion is everyone’s responsibility; and the benefits it can has in our workplaces are just huge. Research has shown that 52% of households pay more attention to advertising messages featuring people with a disability than people without

98% of employees living with a disability, rate average or better in work safety, 90% of people with a disability rated average or better on job performance and 86% of people with a disability rated average or better on attendance

I shared recently about Adversarial Growth, meaning that through our most difficult of times can ignite some of the greatest growth periods of our lives. So people that live with a disability can have more determination and clarity of purpose than others.

So are YOU tapping into a motivated, inspiring and talented pool of people that live with a disability and reaping the rewards??? Businesses today have to welcome a diverse customer and employee base and are being more appealing to investors with Corporate Social Responsibility. A culture of inclusion in your workplace leaves your organisation well placed to respond innovatively to the demands of Australia’s diverse market.

Yet still today among the OECD countries, Australia is ranked 13 out of 19 in employment rates for all people living with a disability. We CAN change this together

Just a few months ago I was asked to be a part of a Human Rights Advocacy Movement for people living with a disability in developing worlds.

A little reluctant at first to join yet another campaign, I said yes and the journey over the past few months have been life changing. We went to rural India on a discovery mission together with a film crew to find stories of individuals living with a disability in some of the most poverty stricken remote places on earth.

Today, I am very pleased and honoured to be the Ambassador for the CBM movement ‘Create2Change’ and now am very passionately involved and a strong advocate to end the cycle between poverty and disability.

Check out these videos below:

If you are interested to find out more about the movement or our presentations shoot me an email or check out the website and see the other exciting things we are doing: www.create2change.org

The Story of Peng Shuilin
In life we keep complaining about what is or why we don’t have. Half the time we seem dissatisfied, though full-bodied and free to choose. Fat people say,”I want to be slim.” Skinny people say,”I want to be fatter.” Poor people want to be rich and rich are never satisfied with what they have.

Peng Shuilin is 78cms high. He was born in Hunan Province , China .
In 1995, in Shenzhen, a freight truck sliced his body in half.
His lower body and legs were beyond repair.

Read the full article – it’s amazing! Click Here >