• Sunayana Yogi

VOLUNTEERING MERELY A CAREER PROFIT OR MORE?

The understanding of volunteering when I started was being there to assist the program or event run smoothly and in return, I get the opportunity to flourish my skill sets. After volunteering for a couple of seminars for the company Your Future Now, I came to know, it is not only the time and energy we spend but it had multi-dimensional enhancement to our life.

To make your volunteering experience touch the sky, there is a tool known as the wheel of life which is a professional tool used by Neuro-Linguistic Practitioners and Life Coaches. This simple chart helps to observe our life in various aspects. As shown in the diagram, you chose major areas of your life such as health, career, spirituality, family and friends, relationship, and money. Put it down in your paper, and start rating yourself from 0 to 10, where 10 is the best version of you in that area. Any time you can use this simple tool, for instance, you can do it before, during, and after volunteering.

Before volunteering, when I rated myself out of 10; my rating on each area was below 5. Once I started to volunteer it introduced a new challenge in my life. Initially, it was tough to manage time and go to attend events, this looked like a problem but the opportunity it provided me was to push my boundaries and learn time management. This assisted me in scheduling time for events and I started to join them. During the event, I would not speak much with the people around me, I would just do the task I was assigned to do. But slowly, I initiated to talk to people, like one or two. Then this went on and on and now I have been able to connect to many people and made friends with them on my social media and in times for motivation and I want to feel heard, I ring them and they have now become a go-to person for me. This uplifted my confidence and overall ranking in personal development.

As the volunteering experience went on, I gradually started to feel connected with my inner being. The sense of fulfillment I was getting for working for free and no monetary benefits for the hours invested is beyond any gains. Here, I got an opportunity to tap into the part of me that is more than just being a daughter, sister, friend, student, or employee. Overall, this experience added extra points to my spiritual area.

Likewise, my networking skills started to develop as I pushed myself to talk to more people and establish rapport with them. These people would come from a varied professional background and yes, I was not perfect on approaching, but these skills must be practiced and developed over time. This platform was perfect to make mistakes, learn, and ask for help. Therefore, this volunteering experience got me extra points on professional development or career.

In terms of health, networking with many people that come together to volunteer without expecting anything in return than personal growth helped me connect with like-minded people. This gradually in months switched my inner circle, where people were driven like me and open-minded were around me. They never complained about my failure instead helped me see the opportunity around it even in the hard times. To reflect, my scoring for health was not that good, but the constant support by my new circle helped me stay consistent with my mindset to take my health to the next level. The obesity problem started melting away slowly and slowly and the journey has not been hard instead of full of life and laughter.

Volunteering helped me connect with my family and friends, even with distant family members. The growth within me on all major areas of life has a positive impact on my communication without hesitation with my parents, grandparents, and relatives where I can share my thoughts, opinions and the same time being mindful of their model of the world that consists of their values and beliefs. Recently, during this COVID situation, few relatives approached me to join a virtual family workshop on Yogi Culture and Spirituality. If I had not developed those skills honestly, I would not have joined the session. Still, my sisters feel difficult to attend any family gatherings.

The money does not need to be there in cash with you or on your bank account. Money is energy and it is everywhere when you start volunteering you get to see how lucky you are to expand your skill sets that are worth thousands of dollars and the network you build is what later on gets converted to your job and business. So, hang on tight, money is already there.

To conclude, if you were to hire someone for your business, would you hire someone with no experience and have just graduated or instead would you go for a fresh graduate that has multiple volunteering experiences and strong networking skills. Your major areas in your life are the direct reflection of your career. Your life is also a business, you are a salesperson for your dream life.

References

Wilson, N., How Volunteering Experience Helps Students Boost their prospects, viewed on 26 July 2020, https://www.volunteeringsolutions.com/blog/how-volunteering-experience-helps-students-to-boost-their-prospects.
Wheel of life Template with Instructions, viewed on 26 July 2020, https://www.thecoachingtoolscompany.com/products/wheel-of-life-coaching-tool.
The Wheel of Life finding balance in your life, viewed on 26 July 2020, https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_93.htm#:~:text=Figure%201%20%E2%80%93%20Wheel%20of%20Life%20Example&text=It%20is%20called%20the%20%22Wheel, Success%20Motivation%C2%AE%20Institute%2C%20In.