Month Long Giving Challenges: Who Really Benefits?

Early reflections on experimenting with the “29 Gifts” Challenge

I was introduced to the 29 Gifts Challenge last summer via the audiobooks rack at my library. A combination of loving memoirs and being tired of feeling stagnated led me to reading and embracing the challenge.

The challenge is simple:

• Intentionally give a gift each day for 29 days
• Keep a journal for progress
• At least once, give something you feel is scarce in your own life

My first round was December 2018. My focus that round was sowing goodwill. It was a challenge that allowed me to bring joy to others and support causes that had helped me that year.

Act of giving something to others is an art of flowering your heart — Vinayak

To be honest, however, I needed to feel good about something. I also needed a distraction.

I started the challenge during my mom’s six week hospital stay and right before the death a lifelong friend two weeks before Christmas.

My thought process was if I wasn’t going to have a good holiday season personally, I wanted to help others have a better one.

Giving my gift was honestly the part of the day I looked most forward to.

I’d like to think I was able to make an impact in a few people or companies end of year.

Do good and good will come to you. —Anonymous

This is my second round. What I’m noticing is how giving the gifts has been mutually beneficial each time.

When giving each gift, I don’t look to gain anything. I look to give what I can of myself to meet another’s need or to spread happiness.

Here’s how it’s happened so far

Day 1: give forgiveness from a grudge I had held for 9 months and treat the person well when I saw her. The result: had the first positive family get together in months. Actually enjoyed the lunch with everyone.

Day 2: Take my mom to breakfast to meet her cousin for the first time (I get really nervous when having long conversations with people I don’t know)/ not speaking to the attitudinal waitress’s boss. The result: connected with a new friend who lives where I eventually want to live and free breakfast/ no one rated me poorly at my side hustle evwn though not every ride was perfect.

Day 3: Compliments. The result: seeing the look on the woman’s face was priceless. She also went from stating everything that was going wrong in her life to a second or two of joy.

Day 4: church with my mom- even though I really only go once a year. Result: actually talking to a few pastors and knowing that I had support for one of my biggest challenges.

This time I’m noticing a more reciprocal aspect. That each time I seek to give something, more than what I give comes back.

That’s not why I do it, but it’s an unexpected pleasantness.

Why I Think Giving Challenges Can Change Lives

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. — Maya Angelou

The act of giving is contradictory both to our natures and society. Both of these crave the attention and watching out for numero uno.

We worry about things that never happen, stress over the small things and spend most of our time consumed with meeting goals.

Yet even the tiniest gift we can give spreads both light and joy.

Giving once in a while lets us in to a secret: that giving brings joy not only to others but to ourselves as well. We live the joy right along side them as it’s mirrored back. Giving makes us happy.

Doing a continual giving challenge changes our hearts. We look for ways to give and serve daily. And somehow the Universe/karma/ God gives us more than just what we need to survive.

It changes our mentality because of the joy we are able to give.

When we see that on an ongoing basis, we seek to do more of it. It can take us from focusing on ourselves too much to being a joy-giver, a smile starter. Plus people naturally gravitate want toward a giver and tend to pay it forward.

Giving becomes the gift, especially when done with no thoughts of how it benefits the giver.

Want to start change around you and in the world? Start by being that change: giving to others is an amazing way to start.