Tired of the same old Saturdays

There is nothing good on TV on a Saturday. Now that GOT is over, there isn't anything good on TV all weekend.

This may be a personal opinion but honestly when you seriously examine it, Football hasn't started yet. The Olympic Games do not happen this year. Awards shows are still far off in the distance. So, lets eliminate Television on the weekends. What else could you, should you be doing with your free time? Cleaning the bathroom, eating pizza, taking a nap.

Maybe go out and toss the football around with your kids? Spending time with them is valuable. Maybe you just have work? Think hard on that. Sparing a few hours to accomplish a non-work related task really could happen on a Saturday. Lets say you love video games. Will you be solving world hunger by finishing the next round of Fortnight? Unlikely. (or at least not on your own!) And maybe your goals in life do not involve solving world hunger or any kind of poverty at all. But, I bet somewhere deep inside, you want to participate in something bigger than yourself.

Lets go with this last premise: You do want to accomplish something bigger.

How would you go about starting that? Lots of questions come to mind like, "what would I do?" "Where would I go?" " How do I get off this couch and out into the world to meet people?" Maybe you come to the conclusion: "this is just too many questions!" and you reach for that TV remote again.

Consider for a moment that volunteerism could be so much more interesting than couch-surfing. Lets cover some stats (if you're the type that needs that kind of convincing) 1 in 3 Americans volunteers in some way in their local community. Of those volunteers, most belong to a local organization. In the state of Michigan alone, the volunteer hours are worth nearly $1.9 billion.

How is that for some peer pressure?

Lets say you're convinced, where do you turn? What could you do?

There are so many local soup kitchens, running groups, children's foundations, government-based and non-governmental organizations you would get lost in the 1000 page listing. However, there is only one organization out there for members of the community between the ages of 21 and 40 that will allow you to accomplish any goal that you have and help you pay for it: Junior Chamber International.

Lets say that you really enjoy animals. You want to make sure that your pets are afforded an opportunity to visit the local dog park for years to come. JCI Michigan will show you how to run a fundraiser, help provide you the resources and assist you in accomplishing your goal of creating a local dog park.

Perhaps you just really love Beer and Networking but you could never figure out how to step outside your comfort zone and invite other young people to a pub crawl to local breweries. JCI Michigan will provide you the brewery contacts and aid in setting up your pub crawl from A-Z.

JCI is the only organization that shows its members how to do project management in order to accomplish community service. I mean if you have ever been a part of a community service organization or even attempted to volunteer for events, more often than not there is plenty of disorganization and chaos. JCI has developed a core mission and goals that supports and promotes the successful development of young members in the community!

Now, you do not have to choose JCI Michigan as your organization to do something fun and worthwhile on a Saturday, but, its probably one of the only places you could go to and run a beer festival on a weekday while raising money for a local soup kitchen and still have time on the weekend to go skydiving because you had never done it before.

Consider checking out JCI Michigan for giggles and laughs. I guarantee you'll have a smile and feel you've been offered an opportunity to accomplish something bigger than you.

Check out http://www.jcimi.org and find a local organization or event to participate in today!!