How to Be Helpful
We all need a helping hand sometimes, and learning to extend yours a little more will help you build a reputation as a reliable, helpful person. Learn to anticipate the needs of others by listening closely to what people say, and how to share your time in the most helpful ways possible.
Being Helpful
1. Assess the situation.
Before doing something and attempting to help, stop and examine it from different perspectives, both to see different ways you might be able to help, and whether or not your help is necessary. Dig deeper. What is the source of the problem? The kind of help which should be extended to a person greatly depends on the situation and whether or not there are underlying causes.For example, if a friend's car payment is due and their car is about to be repossessed if a payment isn't made, you could loan the money for a temporary fix, but how possible is it that you'll end up in the same position in the next couple months.
Instead, think about helping your friend set up a budget, or take out a loan. Help people help themselves.
2. Remain calm.
A calming influence can be just as helpful, if not more so, than offering someone money or advice. Staying calm is also as essential part of clear thinking and even-temperedness, helping you to see the different possibilities for solutions and help, and choose between them honestly and objectively.Read the situation and figure out which perspective needs to be represented to balance things out. If you're generally a worrier, it might be your instinct to tell a friend who is nervous about a big event that you're also worried, too, but will that be helpful? Instead, balance it out. Be the calm one in the situation.
If, on the other hand, your friend is thinking about hitchhiking across the country alone with one pair of clothes and no money, maybe your natural-worry will come in handy.
3. Use positive language to reinforce, not to discourage.
Positivity is one of the most helpful...