What if…?

What if you could enjoy success multiple times a day every day of your life? What would that do for your confidence?

What if that enhanced confidence made it easier for you to deal with life’s challenges? How much more enjoyable would your life be?

What if the solutions you found to the challenges you face were simpler and easier to implement than you imagined possible? Imagine how much easier your life would be.

What if your ability to discover simple, easy-to-implement solutions enabled you to more quickly and effectively help others deal with their challenges? What would that do, not only for them, but for your sense of self worth?

What if your efforts in helping others resulted in unsolicited offers of help from them? When you express your goals, and have consistently helped others, they ask “How can I help you? How much easier would your life be with others helping you achieve what you desire?

What if, as a result of your willingness to help others, you gained others’ trust in a matter of minutes? What would that do for your ability to favorably impact others’ lives?

What if you consistently elevated others; whether with a smile, a kind word, encouragement or an insight that helped them deal with a challenge they were facing? What would that do for you in terms of long-lasting, mutually-beneficial relationships?

What if you were recognized as being a person who possesses both wisdom and genuine concern for the welfare of others? Would people seek your counsel and invite you into their initiatives? If so, imagine how many more opportunities you’d enjoy.

What if your efforts to help others released chemicals in your brain that helped mitigate pain? Science has proven that this in fact happens. Imagine how much easier it would be for you to deal with the physical and emotional pain you’re experiencing.

What if, as a result of your daily successes, your values became more clear to you? Imagine how much easier it would be to make decisions when you are clear about your values.

What if your daily successes made it easier for you to remain true to your values? How many fewer ethical dilemmas would you face?

What if your values were more deeply affirmed with each success, so much so that others are quickly aware of your values and respect them? How much easier would your dealings with others be? How much easier would it be to be candid with others while respecting their rights to their values, opinions and choices?

What if, as a result of having helped others, those you help pay it forward to others, who, in turn, pay if forward to others? Wouldn’t that prove to be an antidote to the divisive, power-seeking rhetoric that is coming from today’s politicians?

Not hypothetical

These are not hypothetical questions. They are in fact what you experience when you commit to serving others. i can tell you from personal experience that my life has gotten easier, simpler and hugely more enjoyable since the day that I committed to:

Leaving everyone I meet better off than before we met

That can be as simple as:

• Giving them a reason to smile.
• Offering encouragement in their moment of fear.
• Letting them know that you believe in them when they’re experiencing doubt.
• Offering insights that help them deal with the challenges they face.

In other words, simply being there for them.

The form of “leaving them better off” isn’t important. Letting them know that they’re not alone and that you care about them and their welfare. That’s all it takes.

The rewards you receive, including:

• Greater confidence in your own abilities.
• The ability to discover simple, easily-implemented solutions to problems…for yourself and others.
• The trust others place in you within minutes of having met you.
• The long-term relationships that form as a result of your ability quickly gain others’ trust and use that trust to help them.
• The influence and opportunities you gain as others recognize both your wisdom and the genuine concern you have for the welfare of others.
• Unsolicited offers to help you achieve what you desire.
• Relief from the physical and emotional pain you’re experiencing.
• Greater clarity about your values.
• The ability to hold true to your values during challenging times.
• Reviving a culture of kindness and genuine concern for the welfare of others that has been the hallmark of American culture.

The key to gaining these rewards is knowing that they are a byproduct of helping others, not the goal of helping others.

Serving others, with the primary goal of gaining the aforementioned benefits, converts your efforts from a gift to a transaction…a transaction that the other party didn’t desire or request.

Nothing creates resentment like someone attempting to force you into a transaction that you don’t want.

As the late Jim Rohn, entrepreneur and inspirational speaker, said: The enlightened among us give without expecting anything in return…knowing that our kindness will be returned from somewhere in the universe. Indeed, I find that I’m always behind in the giving curve because, regardless of how much I give, it always comes back in multiples.

Takeaways

In this season of New Year’s resolutions, don’t make any resolutions. Instead, starting today, practice leaving everyone you meet better off than before you met.   

Every subsequent day, shortly after rising, remind yourself that this is your primary goal for the day. You’ll find that you are successful multiple times a day every day of your life.

Shortly before retiring, revisit your day. Recall your successes of the day. It helps remind you how good you felt in those moments. Then recall those instances in which you weren’t as successful as you’d like to have been. Don’t bemoan the failed effort, instead use it to discover a better way of handling that situation in the future.

None of us bats a thousand…including me…but with this simple approach we get better and better everyday. That’s when life becomes simple, easier to navigate and whole lot more fun…all because we developed the habit of:

Leaving everyone we meet better off than before we met

If you’ve found this post helpful, please share it with your friends. It’s a great way to let them know how much you care.

If you’d like the leaders in your organization to learn how to use the numbers more effectively and dramatically improve the productivity of your workforce, contact me to learn more about these resources:

Resources

Making the EXCEPTIONAL Normal program helps you identify and nurture emerging leaders who elevate all around them to higher levels of performance and greater job enjoyment.

Financial Awareness & Strategy program where employees learn to identify opportunities to improve financial results and prioritize these opportunities on the basis of which produces the greatest impact with the least effort. Greater financial awareness = Better decisions.