My yoga teacher Lucy shares wonderful messages with us—messages of gratitude, calm, peace, and happiness. Recently, she shared the quote, “Service to others is our rent for living in this world.”
As I’ve said here before, I’ve also learned that service to others is the single best strategy to ensure your own happiness.
Helping other people is the most gratifying thing I do.
I remember when I was a teen and first wondered if selflessness was possible. If you always benefit by the wonderful feeling of helping others, are you doing it for them or for yourself?
I decided I didn’t care—if I loved helping others because it made me feel good, so what?
I feel the same way today. Helping others is something I do for them, and for me—and that’s a win-win, which is something I’ll take any day, any time, in any situation.
Nicole, another of my yoga teachers, talked of recently taking up the habit of keeping a gratitude journal. During her first week journaling, she realized how much gratitude she had for the help of others who assist her in juggling work, home, kids’ schedules, and carpooling.
I’m sure Nicole makes sure to express her appreciation to everyone who lends her a hand, and that leads to one more point, a variation of which I first learned from Dan Sullivan—when you appreciate someone, you increase their value.
Here’s what I mean: When we talk about something appreciating in value, we usually think about a material item—a house, for example, or jewelry, a piece of art, an antique, or stock in a publicly traded company.
Saying a stock has appreciated is saying it has grown in value. When you express gratitude to someone, you are appreciating them. And whether or not someone thanks you when you help them, you are growing the value of the most important stock in your portfolio, the one called “you”—that stock’s value is measured in the service given to others, and doing so yields dividends in the form of abundant happiness.
What are you doing to help other? And are you remembering to express your appreciation to others? Join the conversation with your comments.
Best regards,
David