We might have an idea of where the help will come from, but we really never know. In my life, I often have helping hands from unexpected situations that reinforced my faith in humanity and made me giddy as a child on Christmas Eve.
Of course, our close ones help us if they can; it's practically in the contract 🤣 And I am eternally grateful. But what is fascinating about receiving help from the unexpected is that it opens up new connections and inspires you to do the same.
Below are three examples from my life when help came unexpectedly.
In the autumn of 2020, mid-pandemic, two of my dear friends were going through chemotherapy, and life was pretty shit. One of them passed away recently and left us all shaken. Cancer is a bitch.
I raised money for them by running 10km for my birthday. If you know me running is not my thing. It still isn't. I wanted to push myself, connect to people, do something for others and stay sane through the pandemic. I think we all felt a bit helpless in those times. So I created a crowdfunding page, shared it with my network, and posted videos of me sweating out after runs, the pain and the excitement were all captured on my media, and I raised £3000 in a few weeks.
Two things were unexpected:
Most donations came from ordinary people like you and me.
I received an anonymous £1000 donation, and to this day, I don't know who that was, and it annoys the hell out of me.
I suppose in the world of fundraising, this is normal. At that point, I didn't know I love fundraising, yep that's how oblivious I was to the signs 🤭
Last year my Facebook friend Dave Rock mentioned a book he helped create by Louis Weinstock, "How the World is Making Our Children Go Mad and What To Do About It", so I got it and read it with tears in my eyes. It hit the nail about raising children and healing our shit.
Anyway, I was so inspired, and our teen was looking for a different therapist, so I emailed him and made my case to see Carsten and me once as I knew we needed that kick in our butt from outside to shift things, and he agreed. And yes, he did kick our asses free of charge and went to the core of it all. To this day, that conversation is still changing our life. So Anna has been seeing him since autumn.
But that wasn't the unexpected thing. The unexpected was that he emailed me straight after our conversation and asked if I would like to organise his charity fundraising event. I mean, nowhere on my site said I would like to do that, even if I knew I wanted to do that. And the rest is history, as they say.
My third example is linked to the last one. As I was that by organising the fundraising event, I got to work with Chandni from Tuck & Tonic, who provided the most amazing, flavour-bursting vegan food for the event. She and I get along like a house on fire as we are both fun, warm, and direct and like things to be done with care and on time. I am organising a private high-end event next week because she recommended me to a new client whom I have yet to meet. It's all fascinating.
I learned from all these stories that help comes from unexpected places and that things don't just come to us by sitting on our hands. If we do something in that direction, we treat everyone with care and help others when possible; we might be surprised how many opportunities will knock on our doors.
I hope this will inspire you.
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