DOING THINGS FOR OTHERS

A STORY given by a professor to a class of students is well worth hearing about. To each of them he gave a yellow balloon and asked them to blow their happiness into the balloon and then tie their name tag on to it.

Then he told them to throw the balloons into the air and bat them around for a while.

“Now, find your happiness,” he said.

What followed was chaos. People got in each other’s way, they tripped over furniture and some balloons were burst. Very few students recovered their own balloon in the time allotted.

Then the professor suggested a different way.

“Pick up the balloon closest to you. Then give it to the person named on the tag.”

Two minutes later, everyone had their “happiness” back.

Do you see what he did? He taught his students that if we concentrate on ourselves, very few will end up happy. But if we all set out to do things for others, before too long everyone is happy!