In
The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John C Maxwell, law number three is the Law of the Mirror: You Must See Value
in Yourself to Add Value
to
Yourself. It's all about self-esteem, believing in ourselves, loving
ourselves, and many of us have a problem with that. I know I used to.
I
love this law and the way John deals with it, and I especially honed in
on the quote above. John asked immediately following the quote above,
"How much time every day and every week do you spend focusing on others
and adding value to them? Do you service others through a volunteer
organization? Do you mentor people? Do you give assistance to others
less fortunate than yourself?" All good questions, yet I find that they
might give the wrong impression.
Counting the time each week
sounds like a huge commitment to a long-term project that may very well
become an expected, repeating endeavor that can be taxing and
burdensome. Of course, it is always nice to serve others through a
volunteer organization. Again, some may consider these troublesome. And,
we probably all give assistance to others less fortunate than
ourselves, though probably not as often as we should. And that word should is the rub. This way of giving to others, helping others, volunteering for others creates more problems than it solves.
I
get it. He says to serve others, to create value for others and to
others in order that we may be more, and he even says we should do more
and even give a tenth of our time and energy to serving others. What a
burden it can all be. . .
Though I don't care for the way he
spells this out at the end of this chapter, I do agree that by adding
value to others, that we have to add value to ourselves. This can be
done in so many ways and there are no right ways and wrong ways. But,
here's the real key: it has to come from the heart. It cannot be
something we should do or something we do expecting a return. It has to
be freely given with zero expectation of any result period, except that
we think it could be of service to another.
I attend business
networking events and I love to help others in any way that I can that
is "on my path." That might be knowing more about their business so I
can send them some prospects. It might be encouragement to write a book,
or play an instrument or enjoy their day with joy. It also may be more
profound than this, but in any case, it comes from the heart and without
any attachments whatsoever. It is not a trade. The feeling that I get
from doing it is sufficient for me. I feel that I am lining up with the
best of myself in doing such.
You don't have to go very far "off
your track," or away from your strengths, or what you enjoy and love in
order to be of service and add value to others. It isn't an amount, or
even a how-to, it is just a simple and beneficial way of sharing love.
No comments:
Post a Comment