In my book, Single Page Life Plan, I explains how you can make a big change in your life, just by adding a few Coins to your day.
Photo courtesy of @iStockphoto.com
What are Coins?
Coins are those small things we can do every day to help make another person’s life better. Every day we wake up in the morning with a certain number of Coins in our hand that we can potentially spend.
To spend them wisely, we have to be:
- Creative
- Intentional
- Proactive
Because here’s the thing … the Coins you don’t spend by the end of the day, are gone forever.
An Uneven Supply of Coins
Some days we have more Coins than others. For instance, if we wake up with the flu, we don’t have as many Coins to spend. We are probably not going to shovel the snow off our elderly neighbor’s walkway, or deliver those meals-on-wheels, or take our nephew out to lunch.
Other days we might be especially filled with good health, high energy; full of creative ideas. On those days, we have our hands full of Coins that we can spend. One Coin might be spent calling a friend who you know could use a few words of encouragement. Another Coin might be spent sending a photograph to your mom or dad of one of their grandchildren, just o perk up their day. Simple things that are quick and easy to do!
Coins will redeem an otherwise-unproductive day
How many of us go to bed some nights thinking, “Wow, I didn’t get a thing done today!’? No matter how unproductive you might feel your day was, spending a few of your Coins wisely throughout your day will redeem an otherwise unproductive day. Small Coins make a huge impact on others.
Use ‘em or lose ‘em!
The thing about Coins is this … at the end of the day, you have to throw away all of your unused Coins. These lost Coins represent the waste of energy, good health, creativity, and capability you were blessed with at the beginning of the day.
You can’t get back tomorrow, the opportunity you had today, to spend those Coins.
The good news! Tomorrow morning we all wake up with a new set of Coins we can spend.
Some Coins are very rare
The kind of Coins you receive each morning change over time – depending on the season of life we are in. Oftentimes, the older we get, we find ourselves getting some very rare Coins. Some of the Coins of wisdom that a grandparent has might be extremely valuable to a granddaughter or grandson.
The more we practice using the Coins the better we are at spending them in a way where they have maximum impact.
Make a list of possible Coins
You must spend Coins with purpose! To do something on purpose is to do something with a planned consequence! So …
Make a list of Coins!
Choose a couple of Coins from that list every day.
Here are some ideas to help you brainstorm your list:
- Send a stamp or coin to the young collector in my life.
- Call my roomate from college just to say hello.
- Thank a colleague at work.
- Buy someone flowers.
- Visit a homebound relative.
- Order a book online and send it to my grandmother.
- Take my 4th-grader out of school for lunch one day.
- Fill up my sife’s car with gas.
- Be the one to clean out the fridge!
- Pray for someone in need.
- Tell a friend that I appreciate them.
- Subscribe to a cooking magazine for the chef in my life.
- Send a box of chocolates to a friend under stress.
- Bake a cake for someone’s birthday.
- Skype a friend.
Now that’s real change! Spend wisely.
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