What kind of person are you?

From Kindness: Making a Difference in People's Lives:
Formulas, stories, and insights from Zelig Pliskin
Printed with Permission of Shaar Press

With each action you take and with every word you say,
you answer an important question.

"What kind of person are you?"

Are you a giver or a taker?

All takers must give and all givers must take.
But there is a basic pattern of giving and a basic pattern of taking.

A giver thinks about what he can do for others.
He takes in order to give. A taker thinks about what
others can do for him. Even when he gives, it is only because
he wants to take.

By increasing your giving, you become more of a giver.
Are you a person who loves to do acts of kindness?
You answer this by the way you react when people ask
you to do things for them. Are you pleased to have opportunities
to help others or do you resent people bothering you?

The more you increase your sense of joy for doing things
for others, the more you become a lover of kindness.
As you respond compassionately to the plight of others,
you become a compassionate person. Ignoring the plight of
others gives a very different answer to the question,
"What kind of person are you?"

When you go beyond the ordinary to do major things
for another human being, you create an extraordinary person.

There is no limit to the heights to which you can elevate yourself.

When you spend time thinking of creative ways to help others,
your creativity is a work of art. There are many forms of creative artistry.
The form that elevates you the most is creative kindness.
You look for ways to help people who need help but are reluctant
to take anything even time from others. You find creative ways
to cheer up the despondent, to help people overcome their obstacles,
and to make peace between people who quarrel.

As you creatively find answers to people’s problems,
the kind of person you become is an elevated creative artist.
You are creating a better life for a fellow human being.

What kind of person do you really want to be?

Writing this in the form of a mission statement
or an essay has a powerful effect on one’s self-image.
The act of writing that you want to be a kind and
compassionate giver motivates positive action.

And the actual way you answer: "What kind of person are you?"
is answered by the way you speak to others and what you do for them.