Daniel Borschel argues that purpose means daily acts of service and generosity, not occasional donations. He draws on Robert Greenleaf's concept of servant leadership and criticizes how narcissistic culture has eroded communal care. Hearing others' stories of service work sustains his own commitment.
What will make you feel like you providing generous and soulful time and attention to something that matters to you? If that's your family, straight up, great. If that's your family and this other type of career, great. If that's this mission or this giving or this donation or this volunteerism, great. If it's you using your platform to highlight a cause or a person or a situation that you believe in, great. My answer to you is, do it more often. Remember, purpose has to be a way of life. You want to feel potential. You want to feel purpose. It comes from acts of service, acts of compassion, kindness, generosity with the people around you. Are you providing great service as a husband, a wife, a role model, a team leader? Service as in servant leadership. Service as in generosity. Service as in doing a good job with heart and soul. That's what we mean by service. My short answer is, I hope that a lot of what you do in life feels like you're doing it from a generous, soulful place. A generous, soulful place. If you're a mom and you are generous and soulful with your kids, good job. If you're a leader of a big company and a mom and you're doing it for a generous and a soulful place, good job. If you're a volunteer and you do it from a generous and soulful place, good job. If you're trying to lead a team and you've had the guts to ask, how do I do this? Well, you've probably read about servant leadership and Robert Greenleaf's work in servant leadership. You go, oh, okay. The servant kind of leads from the back. The servant is the guide by the side, not the person pushing with the stick. The servant has heart and soul because they have compassion and empathy for others. And boy, do I think we need to develop this because we've gone from a service mindset and one part of last century to a selfie narcissistic culture that has forgot others and literally passes people struggling by on the road like they're pieces of trash. And that's where we're at as a society. And it's going to be the volunteers and the leaders and the servant leaders who are going to change this world. And I hope that's you, and I give you a round of applause if you are that person who's generous and showing up for people and giving your best to your kids and to your team and your fellow members. Very few people do that. And that you do that, I honor you and I thank you for that. It's much Much needed. It's more needed now than any time I've ever seen this moment that we're experiencing in life. The reason a lot of people are feeling so lacking in purpose is because there's so much negativity in the environment. There's so much narcissism in the environment. We're completely bombarded and scrolling by all these acts of selfie culture and narcissism and so few demonstrations of beauty, of humanity, of genuine moments where someone takes a beat out of their day to help somebody or to be with somebody. And when you're willing to do that, part of purpose is sensing a mission larger than yourself. Part of purpose is sensing a mission larger than yourself. Most people confuse that with a large achievement. But what it was meant to be back in the day in these conversations, was it meant you can see beyond yourself. I can see the suffering of others and want to be of service to them. I can see the suffering of others and want to be of service to them. Where that means your angry child or that means the neighbor who is struggling or your friend who just lost her husband, it means I can see beyond myself my immediate selfish, impulsive needs. And I can be with someone, I can sit with someone, I can listen to somebody, I can empathize with somebody. Too often we think of service as like, donation. You know, did I donate to this cause? And by the way, please donate to whatever cause that you get behind. But there's different ways to provide service outside of just money. And the biggest part of humanity is learning to sit with people and be with them in their times of need. To let them know you see them and you hear them and you're curious about their story and you want good for them in their lives. Not your way, not imposing your values, not pushing the answer, but literally just honoring them as a human being and letting them feel that generous, soulful part of you that wants to see them live a happy life on their terms or in their way, and facilitating a little bit of that. That's why I do my work. This is not something I have needed to do for a long time in my life. I love this because you guys leave reviews. I don't know if you guys have read all the app reviews for Growth Day or you send us DMs all the time or you hit reply to my emails. It's a big reason I'm still doing this after 20 years. It's hearing your story, it's knowing how difficult it is, and it's knowing that we all suffer in so many ways. And we all have so much to heal, and we all have so much potential to actualize, and we all deserve to feel and cultivate a sense of purpose. And it's the reason I show up here today. Like this is. This has been the defining part of my life for the last 15 years. And I don't say that because, like, look at me. I'm like, that is just a choice. I chose it from a well paying job and I immediately went broken bankrupt when I decided to do that. I wouldn't recommend going the path that I went, but I just knew I wanted to be a person of service in the world and I had to figure out my own unique journey to do that. I want you to figure out your own unique journey. I want you to find what will make you feel that you are providing generous and soulful time and attention to things that matter to you. What will make you feel like you providing generous and soulful time and attention to something that matters to you. If that's your family, straight up, great. If that's your family and this other type of career, great. If that's this mission or this giving or this donation or this volunteerism, great. If it's you using your platform to highlight a cause or a person or a situation that you believe in, great. My answer to you is do it more often. Remember, purpose has to be a way of life. That annual December donation probably not enough to feel purposeful in the service department.
