Three Easy Ways to Build Community When You Are Time Starved

Recently, I was listening to a podcast interview with Ryan Holiday and he was explaining that to master something, you need to have someone mentoring and coaching you, an equal peer to push you and someone you are inspiring or supporting. I truly believe this and although I have incredible mentors and amazing peers, I sometimes drop the ball on the last one.

Don’t get me wrong, I have every intention to give back but with a full time job, a hectic training and social schedule and a landlord that sends life alert queries because I am gone so often, it can be difficult to carve out the time to ensure that I am giving back as much as I could. Building community and giving back needs to be a conscious decision, but it doesn’t need to be hard.

I have assembled a list of some of the ways that I have found to make building community and giving back a larger part of my life, despite the fact that I am busy.

Make it automatic – Two of my favourite ways to accomplish this is through sponsoring a child through a program like World Vision or a unique program I use called ChangeIt. Basically, you commit to rounding up every purchase you make through your bank account and having the balance donated to the charity of your choice at the end of the month.

Make it something you love or are passionate about – Although I have tried to volunteer with organizations in the past just because I thought I should, the ones that stick are the ones I love and the ones that use my strengths. I give presentations for eating disorder awareness to local groups and I am the web editor for a local race series called RunWaterloo. Neither of these take up much time and when I do spend time on them, it doesn’t feel like extra work.

Make it seamless – If I need to book something or go out of my way to attend a community building event, I will most likely not do it if I am being honest. I have sought out ways to easily integrate it into my everyday life – for instance, my workplace will offer the opportunity to pick up garbage for 30 minutes right after work. If you just tack it on to your schedule, it is a way to win for everyone!

I know you are all busy people! What do you do to give back to your community?