The Idea of Positive Outcomes

While working with the paperwork and files that are necessary in the administrative side of the Legacy Community Health Care clinic, I often find myself pondering and pensively thinking about how my small deeds ripple in the community. I know that often times, it doesn't take much work to really help someone out, and make them very grateful. An example of this was observed during my internship this summer, where the nurses were asking me to help them save some images and convert file types for them on the computer. Something that had taken them many hours to figure out on their own, I was able to accomplish in a few minutes due to my experience with computers. The nurses were extremely grateful for my help and even though I didn't feel as if I worked as hard, I came to understand an interesting concept. The concept is one which involves doing good deeds and helping others. It can be seen in all kinds of work, even in my paper work filing at the Legacy Community Health medical records. Many things come together to make me well suited for this position, things that I would not normally think of, such as my drive to help, motivation, finger dexterity, and able to maintain alertness during mundane tasks. This makes me able to be more efficient than some of the older employees and makes them appreciate my work more.

This concept which I was pondering is closely related to another idea which I have been thinking about for a while. I first coined it "the idea of positive outcomes", to myself. An example is one such as, I have left over food in my apartment, spaghetti and meatballs, in this circumstance. My roommate just gets back from working out, and he goes to the refrigerator and sees my left over spaghetti. He asks me if he can eat my spaghetti, which he is craving dearly, and at first I remember that I love spaghetti and I will probably eat it later, but I think again and note that he will get a greater positive benefit from the spaghetti than I will. If I had eaten the spaghetti later on, I would have been merely consuming it for sustenance, because it happened to be in my fridge, and I may assign it an arbitrary positive outcome of "+1". Yet if my roommate is allowed to eat my spaghetti, especially when he is dearly craving it, it will yield to him a greater positive outcome, lets say "+3". Therefore because my roommate craved the spaghetti more than me, there was a net gain of positive energy after I allowed my roommate to enjoy it. The lack of spaghetti later did not upset me, and in fact, there was additional positive energy fabricated from what seemed like nothing after my roommate told me how much he loved being able to eat the spaghetti after he worked out and how "it really hit the spot". This made me feel good, and it was because he felt good. I believe these thoughts are the basis for all volunteering and donating your personal time and energy. Every time I can give to someone who is in greater need, which will yield a greater positive outcome, I do so. It is amazing how such philosophical thoughts can come from simply working in a room full of medical records, but I enjoy the time to think, and I am eager to continue developing my ideas on what creates happiness and positive thoughts in the world.