20 Things to Change the World
- Give up a few drinks a month and spend $38 a month to sponsor a child in a foreign country.
- Make your voice heard: write a letter to Congress. You’d be surprised how few they get and how much each one matters.
- When you go to the supermarket, get your cart from the cart return in the parking lot. That’s one less cart the attendant will have to push back into the building. And always return the cart to either the cart return or the building.
- Adopt a child.
- If you’re married or otherwise attached, throw a Valentine’s Day party for all of your single friends.
- Volunteer to teach some sessions at a job training center in a poorer part of town.
- If a phone service rep for your cable company or something similar is helpful or does a good job, tell them. They never hear positive feedback.
- Buy flowers or a gift for a loved one for no special occasion.
- Keep a jar of candy stocked at your desk at work for anyone who wants it. You’ll make a lot of friends in the process.
- If you want a pet, do a search of rescue shelters before going to a breeder.
- Tip well, and be nice to the wait staff when you go out to eat. They get blamed for everything that goes wrong in the restaurant.
- Take up a cause, educate yourself, and see what changes you can make in your life to further this cause. Here are some ideas, if you can’t think of any: world hunger, illiteracy, human trafficking, animal rights, racial reconciliation, and women’s rights (especially if you’re a man).
- Furnish a room in your living space for whoever needs it. Be willing to take in friends, family, or recent college grads who are trying to get on their feet.
- Before you go on a mission trip to build a house or a church, see if there are any trips where you’d get to utilize your unique and/or professional skills rather than your probably mediocre construction skills. (If you’re good at construction, see if you can help manage a local project.)
- Be careful with your words. Once you say something, you can never completely take it back.
- If you’re not a vegetarian, give up meat one or two nights a week. If nothing else, you’ll save money, since legumes cost a lot less than meat.
- Buy an acre of rainforest in a foreign country to save it from deforestation.
- Wash your clothes in cold water unless they’re absolutely filthy. This saves a ton of energy.
- Buy a surge protector that cuts energy to electronic devices when not in use. Without this, things like televisions and even cell phone chargers continue to suck up energy when they’re turned off.
- Smile at strangers.
What are some additional ideas that you guys have?
June 24th, 2010 at 4:44 am
I’m a little disillusioned about writing letters to Congress. When I was living in Missouri I wrote several times to the Congressman representing my district. In return I received a rather patronizing and condescending reply that didn’t even deal with the substance of my correspondence. I’ll have to try the Kansas representatives sometime and see if it’s any different.
June 26th, 2010 at 8:57 am
Call out people who are being racist, homophobic, or sexist. (Call yourself out on it, too, because we are all guilty to varying degrees.) It’s amazing how quickly some people will backpedal if you tell them it’s actually not funny, for example, to make fun of the transgender girl who rang up your purchases at Wal-Mart, or to mock the accent of the Chinese waitress who took your lunch order. If nothing else, it makes people stop and think for a minute.
Give what you can to organizations you care about. This might be $200 a month or $20 a year; either way, it adds up. (I would argue that buying locally-produced goods counts for this too.)
June 30th, 2010 at 9:25 am
I say take Tip 11 to the next level and write the company if you receive excellent customer service. It’s getting rarer nowadays to see this, so recognize people for it. It will make a difference when they are considered for promotions or raises… and it will make their day!