EGO HACK | Secret Service & Self-Awakening
Have you noticed how good it feels to know that you’ve made a positive difference to someone’s life? Even the smallest act of service can bring a great sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. However, have you also noticed how anytime you have a problem, it usually involves a lot of ‘me-type’ thinking? How is this going to affect me? How can I make sure they do what I want or give me what I need?
One of the main reasons why service feels so good is because the mind-made ego-fueled ‘me’ – consisting of all of its needs, expectations, judgements and conflicts – is put on the back burner for a while and is not your primary focus. When in service, you are fully focused on where you can give and how you can contribute. In short, you move from selfish to selfless.
There is a direct relationship between personal satisfaction and engaging life with a service-oriented attitude. If you engage your day with an attitude of ‘What’s in it for me?’ or ‘What can I get?’, rather than ‘How can I give and be of service?’ then you’re more likely going to end up internally conflicted, feeling frustrated and experiencing an undercurrent of angst and discontentment. You will push away what doesn’t meet your expectations and be attached to getting what you think you need to be happy. However, if you engage life with a ‘How can I serve?’ attitude, then it becomes much more likely that you will live with an abundance of peace, purpose and positivity.
Giving to get back is not really giving and doesn’t create the same results or rewards. Similarly, waiting to give after you’ve received is a back-to-front way of operating, which rarely leads to lasting satisfaction or success. On the contrary, by recognizing that you are happiest when in service to others, and looking for ways to give, give and give some more, you will find the rewards are much more joy and connection.
When engaging my work, I focus first on how to serve others better than ever before. By doing so, I automatically gain great pleasure, and have noticed that the better I serve, the more profitable the business remains too.
Now, sometimes when suggesting this, I hear the response: ‘Nice idea Sandy, but I’ve given too much in the past and ended up exhausted.’ However, upon deeper enquiry, in such cases, we have usually found that they have been giving in a conflicted way, which has been the real reason for their burnout. Working in the background there has been a conflict associated with what they’ve been doing and it has been the chronic resistance and unsatisfied attachments that’s negatively impacted health.
With a service-oriented attitude, you give without attachment to receiving anything in return. You know from your first-hand experience that through service you are always rewarded by how good it feels. The invitation is therefore to check in anytime you’ve got lots of ‘me-type’ thoughts going on that are causing restriction, resistance and dissatisfaction in whatever you are doing. And instead, to set the intention of being of service in any which way you can. You will find it’s less ‘service with a smile’ and more ‘service is the source of smiles’. Join me in making this the summer of service.
