Your Day

Today is your day.

Today you get to pick how you want to make a difference.
You know the drill. Think of something—and go do it.
Pretty simple.

There is only one catch—we want to hear about it. Let us know what you did and what resulted. We will be selecting one of your ideas to be one of the “Mondays” in our next book. So be creative, have fun, and make sure to let us know what you did to make today matter.

Go to EveryMondayMatters.com to learn more about the “Your Day” Contest.

Thanks for taking this journey with us.

Every time you took care of yourself, did something for someone else, protected the environment, gave from your heart, volunteered your time, and donated your possessions, your action had a ripple effect on your friends, neighbors, co-workers, community, city, country, and the world.

We are confident that you had an amazingly gratifying year and that you know in your heart that you really did make a difference. Every smile, every thank you, and every gesture of appreciation confirmed this for you.

Yet the work has just begun.
It’s a big world out there.
Now you understand just how much YOU MATTER.

No Nicotine

FACTS

• Nicotine is as addictive as heroin or cocaine.
• 12 million deaths have been caused by cigarette smoking over the last 40 years.
• 8.6 million people in the U.S. have at least one serious illness caused by smoking.
• 80% of adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18.
• Every day 4,000 people under the age of 18 try their first cigarette.
• Every year $92 billion or more is spent on cigarette-related medical conditions—and nearly $97 billion worth of productivity is lost because of smoking.
• Nicotine can be found in the umbilical cord blood of a fetus during pregnancy as well as in breast milk.
• Smoking harms nearly every organ of your body.
• 70% of smokers say they want to quit.
• 91.2% of all successful long-term quitters quit cold turkey, without the assistance of patches, gum, hypnosis, acupuncture, inhalers, or prescriptions.

TAKE ACTION TODAY

• Stop smoking—do it cold turkey. Don’t light up! And if you chew tobacco, avoid even a pinch today. You can do it.
• Don’t quit alone. Quit with a friend so that you can hold each other accountable.
• If necessary, use one of the many nicotine replacement therapies.
• If you are a nonsmoker, “adopt” a smoker. Support them by giving encouragement, exercising together, going out where there isn’t likely to be smoking, and providing comfort and accountability.

YOU MATTER

There will be 1 billion fewer cigarettes smoked and 274 million fewer cigarette butts littered, if nobody lights up today. People say it’s hard to give up smoking, but isn’t it harder to keep doing it? To continue smoking, you have to pay for cigarettes, always have a light, get rid of the ashes, and figure out what to do with the butt. Oh…and hope it doesn’t kill you. May this one day off be the first day of the rest of your tobacco-free life.

Thank a Teacher

FACTS

• There are 3.3 million teachers in the U.S.—2.6 million teach K-12.
• 42% of K-12 teachers are over 50 years old.
• Almost 50% of teachers leave the profession by their fifth year.
• A $15 billion per year investment or a 30% raise for all teachers is necessary to make teacher compensation competitive with other professions requiring similar levels of education.
• In 37 states, teacher salaries do not keep pace with inflation.
• $7 billion a year is the cost of teacher turnover.
• The single most important factor in determining student performance is the quality of his or her teachers.

TAKE ACTION TODAY

• Identify a teacher you want to thank—your child’s teacher, a friend or neighbor who teaches, a teacher at a local school, or a teacher of your own.
• Show this teacher your appreciation by:
• Writing a thank-you note.
• Bringing a gift like homemade cookies, handpicked flowers, a book on a topic that interests them, or a gift card for something you know they will like.
• Organizing a class Appreciation Jar. Give every student a piece of paper and have them list all the reasons why their teacher is special to them. Stuff the papers in the jar and let the teacher open one per day.
• Volunteering in the classroom and helping with special projects or field trips.

YOU MATTER

Children are the future of our world, and teachers spend more waking hours with them than their parents do. Showing appreciation to teachers lets them know they are valued and respected—you don’t have to be a student or even a parent of a student to show your appreciation. Remember, teachers help shape everyone’s world…including yours.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

FACTS

• The U.S. leads the industrialized world in waste generation, producing 254 million tons annually—4.6 pounds per person per day.
• 2.5 million plastic bottles are thrown away every hour.
• 400 billion photocopies are made every year—roughly 750,000 per minute.
• Producing recycled white paper creates 74% less air pollutants, 35% less water pollutants, and 75% less process energy than producing paper from virgin fibers.
• Recycling an aluminum can saves 96% of the energy used to make a can from ore, producing 95% less air pollution and 97% less water pollution.
• 33% of waste is recovered and recycled or composted, 13% is burned, and 54% is disposed of in landfills.
• There are 8,660 curbside recycling programs in the U.S.
• Only 2 manmade structures on Earth are large enough to be seen from outer space—the Great Wall of China and the Fresh Kills landfill in New York.

TAKE ACTION TODAY

• Reduce what you use by purchasing larger sizes.
• Reuse rather than throw away.
• Contact your local waste management company and find out if they sort trash and recycle. If not, create different containers in your home and at work for glass, plastic, and paper.
• Deliver your separated recyclables to a local recycling center once a month.
• Buy recycled products and packaging.

YOU MATTER

Reducing, reusing, and recycling are key to protecting our resources and preserving our environment for future generations. Garbage means wasted water, wasted energy, pollution, transportation costs, and overflowing landfills. Reducing is the most powerful technique for eliminating waste because we don’t generate waste in the first place. If reducing is out of the question, then at least reuse or recycle. You have three options. Which one are you going to choose today?

Respect the Disabled

FACTS

• 1 in 6 people aged 5 and older, 54 million people, have a non-institutionalizing disability.
• 25 million disabled are of an employable age.
• 78% want to be employed, but only 33% have a job.
• Disabilities are more often acquired from accidents, illnesses, or late-emerging effects of genetics than by congenital disorders.
• Not all severe disabilities can be seen with the human eye.
• Over 15% of the cars parked in a handicapped parking space are parked illegally.

TAKE ACTION TODAY

• Show respect to the disabled today.
• Don’t park in a handicapped parking space or use handicapped plates or placards illegally. Designated parking for the handicapped is a necessity for them, not an opportunity for you to save yourself a few steps.
• Don’t use handicapped bathroom stalls unless you’re handicapped. A handicapped person’s need to use the restroom may be just as urgent as yours, and it often takes them longer to prepare to use the facilities.
• Drive cautiously and courteously. When you see a handicapped license plate, slow down and show consideration rather than tailgating or honking.
• Help people who need assistance by opening a door, rolling a wheelchair up or down an incline, carrying shopping bags, or offering an arm in challenging weather conditions or on uneven walkways.

YOU MATTER

The majority of people with disabilities want to be totally integrated into all aspects of society. With more awareness, respect, and helpfulness, you can make someone’s life a little bit easier. People don’t plan on getting disabilities, but it happens every day. One day, that disabled person may even be you.

Meditate or Pray

FACTS

• Meditation and prayer shift brain activity from the stress-prone right frontal cortex to the calmer left frontal cortex.
• Slowing the breathing rate to 6 breaths per minute synchronizes breathing with cardiovascular rhythms resulting in enhanced cardiac health.
• Physiological benefits of prayer and meditation include anti-aging, deep rest, decreased blood pressure, higher skin resistance, and easier breathing.
• Psychological benefits include increased brain-wave coherence, greater creativity, decreased anxiety and depression, improved learning and memory, and increased happiness and emotional stability.
• The longer an individual practices meditation, the greater the likelihood that there will be a shift toward personal and spiritual growth.

TAKE ACTION TODAY

• Find a quiet place to be still.
• Take deep breaths to help you relax.
• Meditate or pray.
• With a clearer mind, journal your thoughts and insights.
• Make meditation or prayer a part of your daily life.

YOU MATTER

Looking younger, lowered cholesterol and blood pressure, decreased anxiety and depression, improved memory, increased happiness, more peace…what’s not to like about meditating or praying?

Donate Clothes

FACTS

• 20 billion pounds of clothing and textiles are thrown away every year—an average of 68 pounds per person.
• 1.5 billion pairs of unworn or barely worn shoes are lying in closets.
• Over 36.2 million of the U.S. population lives in poverty.
• On average, 3 million men, women, and children are homeless at some point each year.
• 50% of all homeless women and children are fleeing domestic violence, usually with only the clothes on their backs.
• Clothing donations to qualified charitable organizations are tax deductible.

TAKE ACTION TODAY

• Contact a local shelter or organization that receives clothing donations and ask about any specific clothing needs.
• Look through your closet for clothing, coats, shoes, suits, blankets, pillows, purses, briefcases, umbrellas, and scarves that are in good condition and that you haven’t used in a year or more.
• Organize a clothing drive at work, school, place of worship, or in your neighborhood.
• Wash or dry-clean items. Don’t donate items that are stained or torn.
• Fold and pack clothing in boxes, attach appropriate labels, and then deliver them.
• Consider giving directly to a homeless person.

YOU MATTER

Donating clothes is one of the easiest ways to affect someone’s life in a very tangible and significant way. You can help someone stay warm, wear shoes without holes, dress properly for a job interview, or don a new outfit for school. Do you really need all those clothes filling up your closet?…Millions of other people do.

Get Involved With Foster Kids

FACTS

• Over 510,000 children are in foster care in the U.S.—their average age is 10.
• Approximately 46% of children are in non-relative foster family homes, 24% are in relative foster homes, 17% are in group homes or institutions, 3% are in pre-adoptive homes, and 10% are in other placement types.
• 40% of the children are white, 32% are black, and 19% are Hispanic.
• The average length of stay for all children currently in foster care is 2.4 years. .
• 16% of the children in foster care have been in foster care more than 3 years.
• Over 51,000 children are adopted annually from the foster care system.

TAKE ACTION TODAY

• Find a foster care facility near you. Contact them and ask how you can help.
• Sign up as a volunteer and get your family and friends involved.
• Be prepared. Volunteers at a foster care facility can be involved in everything from outside physical activities to arts and crafts.
• Become a foster parent or adopt a child.

YOU MATTER

Children in foster care have been abused, abandoned, and/or neglected. Many will not return to live with their parents or even with a relative. While we wish the statistics were different, it is up to us to provide the love and support these children need. They didn’t choose to be placed in foster care, but we can choose to step into the gap and make a difference. Who taught you how to ride a bike? Swim? Or prepare for a math test? Whether you remember or not, those people cared…and so can you.

Use Online Bill Pay

FACTS

• On average, 4.8 pieces of mail are delivered every day to over 149 million addresses.
• One of the fastest growing robbery crimes is identity theft by stealing mail.
• With password protection, more than one level of authentication, secure sites, and 100% protection in case of fraud, online bill paying is much safer than putting a check in the mailbox.
• Internet use and electronic account monitoring is the fastest way to detect fraud and decreases losses from identity fraud.
• Banking information can be accessed via the Internet anytime, anywhere.
• Paying bills online saves the average consumer $6 in stamps and 4 hours of time every month.
• 18.5 million trees would be saved annually if consumers viewed and paid bills online.

TAKE ACTION TODAY

• Go to your bank’s website, click on “Online Banking,” and follow the instructions to set up online bill pay.
• Print out statements, view transactions, check balances, pay bills, transfer funds, and look for other financial information at your own convenience.
• Stop receiving bank statements and bills in the mail by signing up for online delivery.
• If you’re not able to connect online, then set up automatic payments over the phone. You may still receive a statement, but your payments will be automatically deducted from your bank account.

YOU MATTER

Online bill paying is more cost-effective, environmentally friendly, quicker, safer, and more convenient than the traditional open-the-envelope, write-a-check, lick-the-stamp, and place-in-your-mailbox method. Do you need any more compelling reasons?

Listen, Play, Appreciate Music

FACTS

Over 70% of schools are not able to maintain funding for the arts.

Schools with music programs, compared to schools without, have significantly higher graduation rates, 90.2% compared to 72.9%, and higher attendance rates, 93.3% compared to 84.9%.

Students with coursework in music appreciation score roughly 53 points higher in verbal and 40 points higher in math on the SAT than their non-arts peers.

Early musical training increases brain development in language, reasoning, math, science, memory, creativity, expression, and spatial intelligence.

Choral singers are nearly twice as likely to be involved in charity work—as both volunteers and donors—than the average person.

Every human culture uses music to preserve and pass on its ideas and ideals.

Music is not limited by age, gender, ethnicity, or time.

TAKE ACTION TODAY

Listen to your favorite music and sing, dance, clap, jam on your air guitar, and enjoy it like no one is watching.

Go see or buy tickets for a live music performance.

Sign up for music lessons for yourself or your family.

If you already sing or play an instrument, do it today or offer to teach someone who wants to learn.

Donate unused instruments to a local school, church, or music education center.

Communicate with your school-district administrators or national legislators. Write a letter of appreciation for the hard work they do and request continued funding for the arts.

YOU MATTER

Music is fun, expressive, imaginative, beautiful, energizing, relaxing, interesting, and freeing. Through music, we preserve our cultural heritage, celebrate our faith with praise and worship, remember events and experiences from the past, come together with friends and family, and express our emotions. Music is the soundtrack of life.

Next Page »