Ian McMillan's story caught my attention this past weekend. Rather than my version, here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/v/-xDSSie6kHs
As I have re-watched the video, the look on young Ian's face when he turned around and saw the devastated young boy said everything. He barely paused to process the situation and went over to the younger boy and turned over the prized ball.
What a great example of Inconvenience Yourself in action! I want to acknowledge not only Ian, but his parents. Don't know exactly what their parenting style is, but clearly have have done things right.
I also want to share some thoughts of my local newscast (that is not the source of the video). After the anchor relayed the story to viewers, he said when he got home he was going to have his own children watch the video over and over again. He wanted them to learn that "doing good pays off". This anchor needs to take some parenting lessons from Ian's parents. Based on Ian's action - he clearly gave the ball away purely to do a nice thing. He had no expectations of getting anything in return. It is wonderful that Ian has gotten the attention he has. I wish our news had more such things to report. I see nothing wrong with the rewards he has received, including throwing the first pitch at a baseball game. But his selfless giving is the thing we should be focusing on, not what he got in return.
Please share your stories with us at our website: www.InconvenienceYourself.com, on facebook or twitter.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Unexpected Opportunity
I am a homebody. As a result, sometimes it seems that I don't have as many opportunities to incorporate Inconvenience Yourself into my life on a regular basis. Today an unexpected opportunity presented itself. In reality, it has been there for a while, but I didn't take the time to Inconvenience Myself. Here is the story.
Recycling is picked up in my neighborhood once a week. A couple of years ago, the city notified us that they would begin collecting cardboard with the recycling, rather than the trash, as long as it was folded up to certain dimensions. As the environment is important to me, I was pleased that my cardboard would no longer go to the local landfill.
However, for more than 6 months the recycle truck consistently left my cardboard for the trash guys to pick up. While I was aware of the situation for many months, I did nothing about it. Today I realized I had an Inconvenience Yourself opportunity right in front of me, and I was ignoring it. First I called the city to make sure the cardboard should be collected for recycling. I specifically asked about pizza boxes as well as other small boxes which meet the dimension requirements. Was told no on the pizza boxes, but yes on the others. The city provided me the phone number for Waste Management and suggested I call, but they would also contact them.
I made the call to Waste Management. They were quite nice and offered to have the truck come back to pick up the cardboard. I declined as my concern is for the environment and it didn't make sense to have a truck come back. (Instead I pulled the cardboard from the curb and it will go out next week.) They also told me the Recycling Route Manager would get in touch with me in 24-48 hours. I was able to confirm that pizza boxes can be recycled.
Many good things after that:
Recycling is picked up in my neighborhood once a week. A couple of years ago, the city notified us that they would begin collecting cardboard with the recycling, rather than the trash, as long as it was folded up to certain dimensions. As the environment is important to me, I was pleased that my cardboard would no longer go to the local landfill.
However, for more than 6 months the recycle truck consistently left my cardboard for the trash guys to pick up. While I was aware of the situation for many months, I did nothing about it. Today I realized I had an Inconvenience Yourself opportunity right in front of me, and I was ignoring it. First I called the city to make sure the cardboard should be collected for recycling. I specifically asked about pizza boxes as well as other small boxes which meet the dimension requirements. Was told no on the pizza boxes, but yes on the others. The city provided me the phone number for Waste Management and suggested I call, but they would also contact them.
I made the call to Waste Management. They were quite nice and offered to have the truck come back to pick up the cardboard. I declined as my concern is for the environment and it didn't make sense to have a truck come back. (Instead I pulled the cardboard from the curb and it will go out next week.) They also told me the Recycling Route Manager would get in touch with me in 24-48 hours. I was able to confirm that pizza boxes can be recycled.
Many good things after that:
- The Recycling Route Manager got back to me within 20 minutes - he is on his way to my house right now to see what they didn't take. Sounds like he will get the problem straightened out. Kudos to Waste Management for their friendly and courteous customer service on the phone & quick response from the Recycling Route Manager.
- I called the city back to let them know of my conversation, and to make sure they knew that pizza boxes can be recycled.
- I suggested that the city include a reminder of the cardboard recycling opportunity and requirements in their next newsletter. Sounds like they will be doing it. Hopefully it will result in more recycling and less waste going to the landfill.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Email Hacking Let Me Know People Care
Yesterday morning my email account was hijacked. Everyone in my address book and many people who had sent me or were copied on email received hoax email (some received 7 emails throughout the day) telling of my dire circumstances. I received hundreds of bounce backs myself - maxed out my inbox. The email recounted my horrible experience in London - I was mugged and held at knifepoint, had no money and had cancelled all my credit cards! The email ended by requesting financial help.
The good news, I was at home in sunny South Florida enjoying a lovely day (until all email-hell broke loose). More good news, the problem appears to have been resolved. The best news, there are a lot of wonderful people in the world. Many of them living the Inconvenience Yourself concept every day. How do I know? I was astonished at the phone calls and email I began receiving before 9am and continued receiving for more than 12 hours. Several people got in touch with me to let me know I had an email problem. Many more contacted me to make sure I was OK. A few of those were actually trying to figure out how they could send me money to help me out of my unfortunate circumstances! One friend was travelling in the Philippines, where it was 1:15am, and he got up and immediately called to make sure I was OK. I also heard from a friend who has moved to Germany (which was news to me yesterday). I communicated with many people I hadn't talked to in quite a while.
On top of that, family and friends jumped in to make phone calls or email others to let them know there was nothing to be concerned about. There are many Inconvenience Yourself examples in what happened to me yesterday.
The goodness in people turned what was a horrible, time-consuming experience into a day of reconnecting. Not so bad after all. It was a good reminder of how many wonderful people I have in my life.
The good news, I was at home in sunny South Florida enjoying a lovely day (until all email-hell broke loose). More good news, the problem appears to have been resolved. The best news, there are a lot of wonderful people in the world. Many of them living the Inconvenience Yourself concept every day. How do I know? I was astonished at the phone calls and email I began receiving before 9am and continued receiving for more than 12 hours. Several people got in touch with me to let me know I had an email problem. Many more contacted me to make sure I was OK. A few of those were actually trying to figure out how they could send me money to help me out of my unfortunate circumstances! One friend was travelling in the Philippines, where it was 1:15am, and he got up and immediately called to make sure I was OK. I also heard from a friend who has moved to Germany (which was news to me yesterday). I communicated with many people I hadn't talked to in quite a while.
On top of that, family and friends jumped in to make phone calls or email others to let them know there was nothing to be concerned about. There are many Inconvenience Yourself examples in what happened to me yesterday.
The goodness in people turned what was a horrible, time-consuming experience into a day of reconnecting. Not so bad after all. It was a good reminder of how many wonderful people I have in my life.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Volunteer Date Instead of Play Date
My friend Melanie arranged a "volunteer date" (instead of a play date) for her daughter Jordan and her friend Piercia. The girls made heart-shaped pillows for the pediatric patients at Children's Hospital in Atlanta. What a great idea - kids volunteering together! It certainly fits the Inconvenience Yourself™ way of living.
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