We wish you the Merriest Christmas Ever!
Service Truly is the Answer
In our lives we have so many things happening and so much on our plate, it can be overwhelming, frustrating, and discouraging at times. We are expected to keep it all together and continue to excel in our professional and personal lives, yet everything keeps bombarding us. What can we do? How can we not only survive, but thrive?
Believe it or not, “Service truly is the Answer”.
A few years ago, I returned home from a speaking trip in Phoenix. It had been several days of sunshine and temperatures in the 70’s with magnificent blue skies.
I landed in Salt Lake City around 10 pm and found my car covered in snow and ice. I did not even have an ice scraper, and had to use a credit card to scrape the ice off my windshield without gloves! I drove home that evening on treacherous roads and without a coat! It was the week of Thanksgiving. The next morning, I awoke to it snowing, but it began as rain. This meant the roads would be horrendous and covered with ice.
My husband took the time to shovel the snow and allowed the morning to get going before leaving in his work truck to head out for the day to work. He has a large box truck filled with equipment, tools, welders and compressors, etc. His truck is very heavy and after going down our flat driveway decided he better go up the road in the opposite direction the get a good run at our very steep road that he would need to climb to get his truck out of the mountains where we live. I was watching him from the window and as he turned up the road all he was doing was spinning his tires and sliding around. He was not gaining any traction and would end up off the road if he weren’t careful. He immediately recognized that this was going to be an issue if he continued and worked his way back to our driveway and pulled back down to our house. He knew he could not leave our little mountain in his truck that day.
Within about an hour, there were 7 vehicles off our short little private road that had spun out and slid off the road. Everything from an Amazon delivery van to a box truck and several cars. Four of them were in fact on our own property. Guess who helped all of them get out…
Over the next four days (including Thanksgiving Day) we got over 19 inches of snow. My husband was not able to get his truck out for the entire week. We are self-employed and he had many contractors that needed equipment repaired and were not pleased that he was not working. Not working when you are self-employed means no money! We had a bit of stress and frustration going on. But what I want to tell you is what we chose to do about it.
My husband immediately began serving others. This was something that we have learned over the years and live by. For the next four days, he was out plowing in our razor every day. He was serving the neighbors, serving the plow truck, serving in any way possible. Many of our neighbors were able to get out of their driveways and up our hill to go to their jobs because he was serving and doing for others. It changed how we felt about the whole situation. It made a difference for others, but more importantly, made a difference for us. Our entire week was happy, calm and full of Gratitude with the holiday as we served others. Service truly is the answer!
Service is the most powerful when we are at our lowest point. Meaning, if you are depressed, do service. If you are frustrated with your employees, do service. If you are having problems in
your significant relationship, turn to service. When we are willing to take our focus off ourselves and put our focus on how we could assist someone else, our focus changes. Things get better. Stuff isn’t so heavy and hard. It is when we get out of our own way that we can see how to do better, do more and move forward. Service is always the answer.
Gandhi said: “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” I too have found this to be true.
One of the easiest ways to up-level in this area quickly is to ask yourself good questions every day. Questions like: “Who can I serve today? What can I do? How can I change someone’s life today? Who needs me? Where can I serve?”
Albert Einstein said; “Only a life lived in the service of others is worth living.” This is so true! Who likes to be around someone who is always complaining or always has it worse than we do? We do not like to be around someone who is always playing the victim.
You will often hear me say this: “It’s the little things we do on a consistent basis that ultimately change our lives!” ~Kris Barney
It’s true. If you are looking for change in your life, start with service. It is the fastest way for you to see change. It is almost instantaneous. Try just smiling at someone or saying Hi to them as you pass. Try giving a heartfelt compliment to someone. Try acknowledging a co-worker for something they have done or show genuine appreciation to your significant other. I promise this works every time. (As long as you are genuine and authentically mean it.)
In my book, Leadership From the Inside Out – Are You the Leader YOU Would Follow, one of the traits that I teach is SHOW Sincere Service. I teach that there are two types of service: Simple Service and Sincere Service. Let me explain what I mean by placing all service in these two categories.
First is Simple Service: This is something that we do daily. It is expected, even required. We have signed up for this. Every person does some kind of simple service. Let me give you some examples: you choose to be in a relationship such as marriage, which means you choose to serve that person regularly. You choose to be a parent, so you have chosen to serve that child for the rest of your life! You sign up or agree to take a community or church position or be on a committee. It will come with service. Or you have accepted a job, and it comes with a considerable amount of service in working with co-workers, as well as customer service.
Simple Service can feel like this:
- Obligated
- Feel guilty
- Can create stress
- Feel it is required
- Feels like it takes effort
Second is Sincere Service: Sincere Service is service that you feel deep within your heart. You are changed by performing this service and are a better person for having done it. It raises your character. It is defined by superior service to others. It is doing something for someone else that they cannot do for themselves. It is treating a customer with excellence because it is what is best for them—it is in their best interest. It is putting our own interests or agendas aside. It is showing gratitude for your client because you genuinely do care about them. It is being genuinely happy for others’ success.
- Raises your character
- Moves you forward
- What you put out you get back, multiplied
- Creates Abundance
- Builds relationships
- Creates Loyalty
- Gains Respect
Isn’t this what we all want? As you focus on Sincere Service the personal benefits are incredible, but also consider the business, work or corporation benefits also! You will:
- Build Relationships and Connection
- Creates Abundance
- Makes your challenges and trials easier
- Gain Loyalty and Gain Customers for life
- Get Referrals
- Increase Sales
Service truly is a game changer. It is easy to do and immediately changes your life. How can you shift into Sincere Service right now to create the life you want?
Service can look like anything. For those who know me well or have heard me speak you have probably heard the story of the Mylar Balloon and how that simple act of service changed us and our situation. Service does not have to look a certain way. You can create it to be anything. A simple smile to a stranger, a kind word to a co-worker, quality time with someone, writing a note, an encouraging text, snow plowing someone’s driveway…it does not have to be complicated; we just have to be aware and willing. It really can be simple!
With all of this said and done, I break Sincere Service down with the acronym SHOW. I know that when we SHOW Sincere Service, it gets in deep into our heart and becomes part of us. It creates you to become the person you want to be. It improves relationships, creates bonds, brings abundance, heals you, creates loyalty and respect, empowers you, teaches you and raises your character. It simply changes you.
This is how I break down SHOW:
- Sacrifice
- Humble
- Operate
- Willing
It will not jump right out to you how I define these words into creating a different outcome, just by seeing the words. I go over each of these in my book as well as have other videos out to explain this. If you would like to know more about how I break down the acronym SHOW. I have another 15-minute video titled: SHOW Sincere Service that will go into detail what I mean by these words and the action behind them. I break it down and detail it out quickly and easily for you to see what I mean by them. If you are just willing to do things a little differently and implement this concept on a deep level, you will see dramatic results!
Watch our episode today to see how your life will be affected by upping your service and seeing how “Service is the Answer.”