ACC

I heard something that I am trying to make a point of remembering.
They were talking about helping others being good for a person in three ways.  To help me remember it, I remembered the first letter of each word.  When I do that, I like to make a word of those letters, as an aid.  In this case, I was really at a loss, as the words started with C, A and C.  The best I could come up with was the A double C.  I think it is the ACCC.  Though I have thought of the Australian Consumer Commission.
Anyway, it was out of order, but I think each stands alone any way. They were Autonomous, Connected and Competent. 
Me helping others, is good for me, in that it helps me connect with others.  So often an impediment makes a person feel isolated.  This is especially true if I cannot get around by myself. When I undertake a task for another, I need to immerse myself in the world of another.  Sometimes, the best way to forget, is to do something beyond myself.  I know what it is like to be depressed, and then do something, and consequently need to remember I was depressed. Feeling connected is a good thing.
By the same token, helping someone else makes a person feel autonomous.  That is, I am free to act independently.  To me, freedom is all about choosing options.  If I autonomously help another, it means I freely choose to do that.  That has got to be good.  For me, feeling helpless is bad.  I need to have choices.  Ok, the options may be different than they were, but there are still a multitude of them. Besides, I never did all I could do, and now is not any different.
The third positive in helping others, is that it makes a person feel competent. To me, there is nothing worse than feeling I have nothing to offer – that my world has shrunk to the point that I am only a liability.  Thankfully, I know of no one for whom that is the case.  I used to be able to sing but now I can’t.  Others though I had a good voice, and who am I to dispute them. Not being able to do that, does not mean I have no options, it is just they are different to what I have pursued in the past.  They say a change is as good as a holiday.
I saw a Facebook video, about a retired gentleman who visits a hospital two days a week, to care for babies.  Everyone benefits. He does, the babies, the hospital staff, and the parents who cannot be there for valid reasons.  Unfortunately it would not surprise me if that was one day banned.  One bad experience and everyone gets tarred with the same brush, and the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater (it seems appropriate talking about babies and all).  For some, I am sure he had reached his use by date, but fortunately not for him.
So for me that was ACC.  Autonomous, Connected and Competent.  Others have been looking at this stuff for a life time.  I personally think a lot of it applies. 
Maybe I am dreaming, but if the cap fits, wear it I reckon.