1032 The Power of Service

This is Five Minute Friday. The iconic Muhammad Ali said, Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth. I've always been a big believer that everyone is addicted to something. Everyone's got some type of addiction. But if we are going to be addicted to anything, why not find a positive addiction? And why not be addicted to serving other people? When you're giving your gifts to other people, you're helping people with your time, resources, you're creating something in the service of other people, it lights a fire under you. And then it makes you stronger, more confident, and makes you wanna keep going. And this is one of the most powerful things about service. Here on the podcast, my goal is to serve as many people as possible. Our current mission is to impact 100 million lives weekly to help them live a better life. And it means that I can't tailor every episode to be well-liked by every listener. and I wanna bring back this point here in just a moment, that some episodes are slam dunks while others seem to get mixed responses and get critical feedback. And to be honest, sometimes it hurts when people say negative things about our dreams or our craft or our gifts or our programs or products or something we put our time and energy and our love into and we put it out in the world and when someone says something nasty about it or criticizes it, it can be hurtful to us if we allow it. And I'm gonna give you a trick here in just a moment, but it doesn't shake me off my path because my mission is service. not pleasing everyone, which will never be possible. You'll never be able to make everyone happy in this process. I know I'm not perfect. I make mistakes all the time. And I can still give my all to improve others' lives in the way that I best see fit. Now, the desire to serve is a beacon I can always look for guidance into, right? When I'm stuck with the decision, it helps me think of the people that are involved. Or if I'm trying to figure out which course of action that will serve them best, then everything else falls into place. Let me talk about this for a second with business. I did a lot of training on public speaking and I got pretty good at being able to get in front of a crowd, overcome my fear of being nervous, speak in front of 10, 20,000 people. You know, I was getting paid well, but I still remember seeing myself nervous before every speech that I'd go on to, even after five, six, seven, eight years of doing this all the time, I'd still be nervous. And I eventually talked to a coach who said, Listen, the reason why you're nervous and have insecure feelings is because you're still worried about what people think about you. You're worried about messing up, saying the wrong thing, or forgetting that line. Stop worrying about messing up. You're going to mess up. You're not gonna be perfect. And start focusing on serving the people in the audience. And when I flipped that way of thinking, that mindset, I stopped being nervous because I accepted that I would not be perfect and that people wouldn't all love it. And I focus on how can I give in that moment with the audience to the best of my ability. That's something you want to think about in your business or your career. You're not going to be perfect. Show up and serve with that attitude. And your relationships, talk about being a better listener, being there emotionally for your partner, and doing small acts of service. These are some things that you can do to really show up for your partner as opposed to expecting them to show up for you only and you being a taker. There are things that you can do every single day to show that you care. And that caring mentality, that service mentality will pay dividends in your relationships in the future. My friend Rory Vaden says, it's hard to be nervous when your heart's on service. And I think that's really cool because we might get excited, we might get energized and have adrenaline, but we're not living in fear as much anymore because we're here to serve. You've got to embrace in your heart the idea of service because it will guide you on figuring out what you're meant to do in the next stage of your life, the next season of your life. If you're just trying to figure out your mission, focus on service because it will fill you up and it'll impact the people around you at the highest level. when you focus on that. When you focus on other things, not service related, it's not going to guide you in a fulfilling manner. And remember, serve people in the way that you know best how to serve people based on your values, your passions, and the impacts you want to create. It will make you more confident, more energetic, and better at what you do when you're doing it the thing you enjoy doing in service. And I want to leave you with this quote that I love from Larry Winget, who says, Discover your uniqueness and learn to exploit it in the service of others. And you are guaranteed success, happiness, and prosperity. If we can focus on your unique talents and learn to exploit those talents by giving and serving other people, he says, you are guaranteed success, happiness, and prosperity. Obviously, we're all gonna go through challenges and adversity and nothing's gonna be perfect for the rest of our lives. But when I think about great leaders of the past or great leaders of our time, the ones that bring people together, they focused on this service mentality. And I hope this gave you some insights on what you could be doing in your life today. I'm so grateful for you. If no one's told you lately, you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter, and you know what time it is, it's time to go out there and do something great.