Whether you realize it or not, much success can be brought upon you through service. I’m not just talking about career success or financial success. I’m also not talking about some sort of self-sacrificing servitude. What I’m examining this week is the levels of service that you can provide in different areas of your life. If you can provide service, you can be useful. If you can be useful, then you can be valuable. If you can be valuable, then you will succeed.

How Do You Provide Service?

No matter who you are or what you do, you probably serve someone in some way. You might serve your employer by completing tasks that help to accomplish a shared mission. You might serve your family by paying bills and helping out around the house. You might serve your friends by engaging with them socially and offering your insights to them when necessary.

All of these roles (and many more) may intertwine. Perhaps you serve your coworkers by doing a good job, but you also serve some of them by going out for happy hour a few times a month and providing them with a social environment to blow off some steam.

Wherever you are and whoever you’re with, you most likely provide at least some sort of basic service. If this is what you do, wouldn’t you want to serve them to the best of your ability? Don’t you want to look back one day and realize that you were the best employee, sister, mother, friend, and citizen that you could’ve possibly been? We all play a role in this society, and by being a productive member of society through service, you can become a resource to the people (and world) around you.

Being Useful

If you can serve somehow, then there’s a way that you can be of use to someone. If you can be useful to someone, then they will probably want to keep you around. I’m not saying that people will only want to be around you because you can be of utility. You serve people in more ways than you realize. When parents teach children discipline, they are serving them in some form. When romantic partners enforce boundaries, they are actually serving one another and the relationship as a whole.

You simply cannot go about your life without serving those around you in one form or another. If that’s how it’s going to be then you’re going to want to at least figure out the most useful service(s) you can provide to those people. We’re social creatures. This is all just one really big team effort. How can you make a positive impact on society? By offering a set of useful services completely unique to you, conceived by your wonderful mind.

Finding Value in Service

So if you can serve, then you may be of use. If you can be useful, then you can be valuable. If you’re valuable to people in some way, they’ll really want to make sure you stick around. They will (if they’re nice people) take care of your needs and appreciate you. Employers do this through compensation and benefits. Friends do this through support, inclusion, and by giving you a sense of belonging. Family does this through love, acceptance, and affection.

You serve so many people in your immediate vicinity without even realizing it. These people depend on you to be yourself and give them your gifts. If that’s how things are when you’re not even conscious of it, imagine how much more valuable you could be if you actually tried to give them the absolute best service you can.

Demonstrating value through service is one way to naturally attract the things you want in life. By following this concept, employers will hire you, friends will create experiences with you, and family will treasure you. People will give you whatever you might need in return for your service. The trick is always giving them just little bit more than they give you in return. That will keep those individuals coming back.

Don’t Be A Servant

When you go to a restaurant, is your server an unpaid and unappreciated servant? You tip your servers, don’t you? Why do you do that? Because they provide value through their service. This principle applies everywhere.

I know that this post is all about service, but let’s not get out of hand. Serving others is one of the best things you can do, but that doesn’t mean you’re a servant. Sometimes, putting your foot down and not sabotaging yourself is exactly how you can best serve in that moment.

Imagine this: it’s Friday night and your daughter has a dance recital. Your boss asks you if you can work late. He makes it clear that you can decline, but he would prefer that you stuck around. There is a threshold here, and at that threshold you must make a decision. Do you stick around and serve your boss, or do you serve your family by going to the recital? If you say yes now, this may become a common occurrence. Would that be the best way to serve? Who or what comes first? There is no right or wrong answer because your circumstances may be much more complex than this, but it’s something to think about. You can’t always make everyone happy.

I learned a hard lesson years ago. I was working at one of my first jobs and my family had planned a vacation that overlapped with one of the busiest days of the year at my workplace. I ended up cutting my vacation a day short and taking a bus home from the beach. I chose to be a yes man, and it resulted in me actually hurting my family more than it helped them. The bus ticket alone costed more than what I would’ve made working that day. I was making a little more than minimum wage.

Sometimes, the best way to serve is to put your foot down. I should’ve said no. I would’ve served my employer better by showing that I had clear boundaries. I would’ve served my family by showing them how important this vacation was to me. Instead, I worked against myself more than anyone. This pattern continued (and intensified) until I become more aware of my behavior. I came to understand that my boss was asking me for more and more because I showed him I would always say yes. It wasn’t long after this realization that I quit the job. He wasn’t a bad boss, I just made it so easy for him that he didn’t even know how much I was giving away.

Aim to serve, but don’t be a servant. Serving the world around you doesn’t mean that you get nothing in return. As a matter of fact, a big motivator for serving should be the understanding that it WILL come back to you.

Conclusion

I think I may have gotten a little off track with my anecdote, so let me summarize the message very simply: if you are helpful to other people, they will appreciate you. If people appreciate you, then they will help you in return. They will provide value in exchange for your value. This includes money.

Sometimes people won’t actually appreciate you. That’s because they won’t see your true value in the person you are. They’ll want you to be someone else. That same person would probably shower you with the right treatment if you served them differently, but that might not be in your nature. In that case, you’re either dealing with a not-so-nice person, or you and that person are not a good match for whatever situation you’re in.

Make it your mission to have a positive impact on society. Do it by helping other people. I promise you that the right things will come your way if you learn how to do it correctly.

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