(00:00):
Hello and welcome back. This episode I call, Are We All Meant to Serve? Now, I'm going to let the cat out of the bag. I think the answer to that question is yes, I think we are, but I'm going to leave the answer to that question to you. And where this topic came from was a conversation I had a couple of weeks ago, and it was an aha moment for me that I would've never expected. And as we drill down on this topic, I want to clarify that this episode is going deep into, and getting to the root of, two very specific Disciplines: Discipline number three, know thyself, and Discipline number five, know your hundred percent. And so I'm going to come back to that, but also there's a great companion episode. And so episode 80, just a few episodes back, What Is Your Gift? It's just a very different twist. It's coming at it from a different angle, which I hope you'll see clearly as we drill down.
(01:09):
And so I'm going to start with that conversation that I had. And so I was at an event and I was having a conversation with a friend of a friend of a friend. And so I barely know this person, and I've had a couple of conversations with this person in the past, but just very superficial. And I saw the gentleman and he sheepishly came over to me, and I could tell he wanted to talk about something. And so he sat down next to me and shared that he did a little research on me and learned what I did for a living, and shared some nice accolades and, "Wow, I'm impressed. You wrote some books and you did this and you did that." And so really nice, complimentary conversation. And as we dug deeper into the conversation, it really wasn't about that. What he was fascinated with is my passion for helping people. And he shared how it came through so clearly, my desire and drive to help.
(02:18):
And he said in so many words, "I can tell how you want to help people." And I think he said the word "serve." I may have made that up in my head, but he also in so many words said, "I can tell how you want to serve." Because then what he went on to say is that if everyone had that service mentality, that mentality to serve, the world would be a better place. And so we just had this great conversation and that was really enlightening for me. And so I'm thinking about that, and in my head I'm thinking, isn't that how everybody works? Isn't that how everybody thinks? Maybe I'm in an echo chamber of a bunch of servant mentality people, but that's just, it's built into me. And so I said to him, I said, "Well, doesn't everyone?"
(03:12):
And so in that, I now want to jump to a different conversation that just happened in the last few days, and I was having this same conversation with somebody because this serve thing is on my mind, and assuming that everybody desires to serve. In the conversation, this other particular gentleman felt that for those of us that desire to serve, help, teach, whatever the word is that works for you, there's 10 times the number, and then he actually said a hundred times the number that don't. And I'm a little surprised by that. I don't think the number's that high, but this is for you to decide. I'm just building up to the aha moment here. And so when I think about me, to hopefully help you, it is what drives me. It is what fills me up. It is what inspires me. Again, so helping people, teaching people, providing value in the world. Again, I love to help. I love to teach. I love to create value. I love to serve.
(04:15):
And it's interesting; I never called it "serve." So this is why this word is like, oh, it's meaning something to me lately. I don't know that I called it that six months ago, let alone six years ago or 20 years ago. And then what's interesting about that is I don't think my ego likes the word "serve." And so it's like if you go into the egotistical, arrogant ego, I think that feels like it's like you're beneath someone to serve them, where my soul loves that word. And so it's just really ringing true to me. And so I just want to bask in the word "serve" for an entire episode here. And then just challenge you, question you, get you thinking about again, the question, are we all meant to serve? And I really think the answer is yes. Let's dig deeper and find out.
(05:13):
So another way of looking at this is I would call this my purpose, my calling, my vocation. And this is where we touch on some of the stuff from that episode 80, all words that my soul loves very much. But vocation is one that's really ringing strongly to me these days. But nonetheless, again, serve as the focus here. And I believe we all serve different ways. And so it is really clear for me how I serve. I want to help driven people, get everything they want out of their business and lives. But again, we're all different. And so thinking about you, so if we're business owners, we serve our employees. In addition to that, we serve our clients. So if you have clients, you serve your clients. If you have employees, you serve your employees. If we have a boss, we serve our boss. If we have a spouse, we serve our spouse. If we have children, we serve our children. If we have friends, we serve our friends. And our community, if that's important to us, we serve our community. So again, just getting the gears turning here.
(06:13):
I feel lucky that I know and have known for over 30 years how I serve. And my question to you is, do you know how you serve? What inspires you? What motivates you? What drives you? And so I have a handful of questions to get your gears turning, just five of them. And so the first question, as we've been talking about, is: how do you serve? And I just want to pause for a few seconds on that; have you give that some thought. How do you serve? Next question: who do you serve? So think about all the people in your life. Who do you serve? Next question: what is your purpose? Next question: what is your calling? Just throwing a few different words at you here to see, maybe one of them resonates more than the other. What is your calling? And the last question: what is your vocation? And so just give some thought to those questions. Hopefully some things came to light.
(07:29):
I'm reminded of, when we talk about we all serve differently, every walk of life, I'm reminded of the story of the janitor in a cancer ward that was asked what he does for a living. And his answer was, I cure cancer. And so again, that janitor realized the way that they serve is by keeping everything tidy so that everything in the cancer ward can function well. And so to understand that at that level, that person is passionate, driven, inspired, excited to do what they do every single day. As I continue to get your gears turning, I'm going to bring back something from episode 80 as well, again with this little different twist, with this serve twist on it. And it's those three magic questions that were very profound for me in my life, in my mid-30s, and drove me for the next 15 years. And it's question number one: what are your three greatest successes? Question number two: what are your three greatest failures? And then question number three, the big one, is: what has life prepared you for?
(08:41):
And when I share those questions with people, what I see is it brings them back. And so if you may be lost your way a little bit or haven't been entirely clear on how you serve, or maybe you are, but it tends to bring them back to their core, to again, that purpose, that reason for being, and it motivates them, inspires them, and drives them to do more. People ask me why I'm so motivated, why I'm so energized to do what I do, and this is it. I know clearly how I serve the world, and I get great joy doing it. And so now let's bring you all the way back to Disciplines three and five: know thyself and know your hundred percent. So now imagine knowing how you serve. In your soul, it's so clear to you, and then spending the maximum amount of time doing it.
(09:36):
And so let's pretend it's all work-related, as it is in my case. And so what I do with as many working minutes as I can, and that hundred percent knowing myself, I maximize that amount of time so I'm making as big of an impact as possible and having as much fun as possible, serving the world in that way. And then with that clarity, if I can articulate this image of you just picturing yourself fully maximizing your time, serving the way you're supposed to serve, you're intended to serve, imagine that clarity, and in that clarity, in my mind, everything just falls away. Everything else that just falls away. And I picture that suit of armor or that block of marble or the cocoon just falling away, and that butterfly comes out of that cocoon and just absolutely soars and flies in great beauty. And that is your True Self.
(10:41):
And so all the way back to the question: are we all meant to serve? I really think so, all 8.5 billion of us in various ways. And then all the way back to the words of the friend, of a friend, of a friend. If we all served, the world would be a better place. And so I urge you, please go back to those questions. I gave you a total of eight questions throughout this episode, and just slow it down and just make sure you have a clear answer for each one. And then serve, baby, serve.
(11:23):
Thank you for listening in today. We truly appreciate you taking the time to spend with us, and please tune in for the next episode. Until then, we wish you all the best in freeing your True Self. Stay focused, and much love.
