{"id":58575,"date":"2022-01-15T12:08:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-15T16:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=58575"},"modified":"2022-01-26T11:42:33","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T15:42:33","slug":"helping-others-in-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/helping-others-in-need\/","title":{"rendered":"The Virtue of Helping Others in Need"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Why is it important to help others in need? How can helping others solve their problems ease your own suffering?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Ryan Holiday, the author of <em>The Obstacle Is the Way<\/em>, working to solve the problems of others is one of the most effective ways to solve your own problems. However, many people narrowly focus on themselves and their problems, which clouds their perspective and makes it difficult to see things as they are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is what Holiday has to say about the virtue of helping others in need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-virtue-of-helping-others-in-need\">The Virtue of Helping Others In Need<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In challenging times, we tend to narrow our perspective and focus on ourselves, desperate to find a way to escape <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/benefits-of-fear\/\">pain and fear<\/a>. But <strong>our instincts of self-preservation sabotage us by making it more difficult to see events objectively<\/strong>. When we\u2019re only looking out for ourselves, we interpret everything that happens as good or bad for us instead of neutral, as they really are. These subjective judgments cause the majority of our suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>By turning our attention outward and helping others in need, we can tap into an unlimited source of motivation and strength<\/strong>. Active service to others will renew you with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/a-sense-of-purpose\/\">a sense of purpose<\/a> and self-worth, and you can seize this greater purpose anytime, anywhere. Negative emotions like anxiety and self-pity fade away when you discover a way to move forward and do good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Helping Others Unconditionally Is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-key-to-happiness\/\">the Key to Happiness<\/a><\/strong><br><br>While Holiday frames the feeling of contribution to others as a source of motivation to achieve your virtuous goals, in <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-courage-to-be-disliked\/1-page-summary\"><em>The Courage to Be Disliked<\/em><\/a>, Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga <a href=\"https:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/books\/The-Courage-to-Be-Disliked\/Ichiro-Kishimi\/9781501197277#:~:text=The%20Courage%20to%20be%20Disliked%20is%20a%20book%20that%20instructs,accept%20others%20as%20they%20are.\">make the more extreme argument that these feelings of contribution are the essence of <em>all<\/em> happiness<\/a>. However, they add the caveat: You need to help others <em>unconditionally<\/em> to be happy, asking nothing in return\u2014not even gratitude.<br><br>Kishimi and Koga assert that happiness is based on self-worth\u2014whether or not you think you\u2019re a \u201cgood person.\u201d They argue that most people base their self-worth on external approval, using the praise of others as evidence that they\u2019re \u201cgood\u201d enough. For example, a child builds self-worth by getting good grades to earn their parents\u2019 approval, then grows up and gets a fancy corporate job to earn the approval of their larger culture.<br><br>However, Kishimi and Koga argue that this reliance on the approval of others is ultimately unfulfilling. If you need people to recognize <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-good-are-you\/\">how good you are<\/a>, you\u2019ll inevitably be unhappy whenever you\u2019re denied this recognition.&nbsp;Holiday makes the point that worrying only about yourself hurts you by making it difficult to see events neutrally. Kishimi and Koga would agree, arguing that <strong>by seeking recognition, you\u2019re only concerned about yourself even when you\u2019re helping others<\/strong>. Even if you spend your entire life doing good, you won\u2019t be happy if you\u2019re doing it for external approval.<br><br>Kishimi and Koga conclude that to find <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/lasting-happiness\/\">lasting happiness<\/a>, you need to base your self-worth on contributing to the world in the way you think is best, even if no one approves or appreciates your actions. When you do this, people with different values\u2014perhaps even family members\u2014will dislike you, but to be happy, you need to work up the courage to be disliked.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why is it important to help others in need? How can helping others solve their problems ease your own suffering? According to Ryan Holiday, the author of The Obstacle Is the Way, working to solve the problems of others is one of the most effective ways to solve your own problems. However, many people narrowly focus on themselves and their problems, which clouds their perspective and makes it difficult to see things as they are. Here is what Holiday has to say about the virtue of helping others in need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":33781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,43,24],"tags":[259],"class_list":["post-58575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philosophy","category-self-improvement","category-society","tag-the-obstacle-is-the-way","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Virtue of Helping Others in Need - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why is it important to help others in need? By helping others in need, we can ease our own suffering and discover a greater sense of purpose.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/helping-others-in-need\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Virtue of Helping Others in Need\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why is it important to help others in need? By helping others in need, we can ease our own suffering and discover a greater sense of purpose.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/helping-others-in-need\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-15T16:08:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-26T15:42:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/two-girls-with-umbrella.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"971\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/helping-others-in-need\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/helping-others-in-need\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"The Virtue of Helping Others in Need\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-15T16:08:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-26T15:42:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/helping-others-in-need\/\"},\"wordCount\":557,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/helping-others-in-need\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/two-girls-with-umbrella.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Obstacle Is The Way\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Philosophy\",\"Self-Improvement\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/helping-others-in-need\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/helping-others-in-need\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/helping-others-in-need\/\",\"name\":\"The Virtue of Helping Others in Need - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/helping-others-in-need\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/helping-others-in-need\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/two-girls-with-umbrella.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-15T16:08:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-26T15:42:33+00:00\",\"description\":\"Why is it important to help others in need? 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