How do you best serve?

Your Journal Prompts This Week:

What does "being of service" mean to me?

In my experience, what is the relationship between service and sacrifice?

When do I feel resistance to being of service?

When do I experience joy when being of service?

A lot of us say we do what we do because we want to help people. If you grew up with traditional religion as well, you might see being of service as the most valuable and noble thing you can do.

And certainly, being of service to others who need us is important. But I've been thinking a lot about service and sacrifice lately, specifically how we can sometimes see service as a sacrifice or suppression of our own needs and desires. This has been on my mind since I read Present Over Perfect, Big Magic, and The Artist's Way, all of which address this idea of service and what it does to our creativity. As I was journaling the other morning, some messages came through that made me realize that I might perhaps need to look at being of service in a different way:

Serve from who YOU are.

Not from what everyone else needs. And certainly not from what you think everyone else needs.

Who are you? How can you help others by being who you are, as you are?

Just because someone expresses a need to you, it does not mean you need to be the one to fulfill it. Someone else may be better equipped to help and serve in this way. Someone else may love to serve in this way. When you give them room to step in, you are able to focus on how you uniquely serve.
 

Every time you serve in a way that is out of alignment with who you are, you step further away from yourself. And this is why you begin to feel frustrated, resentful, or bored.

Does your commitment to service ever lead you to insert yourself as a character in someone else's story, or to play a role that isn't yours?

I share these thoughts and messages with you in hopes that it resonates, and in hopes that it helps you look at what you do and why you do it in a whole new way.

With much love & gratitude,
Marcy

P.S. Episode 6 of Soulpreneur Sundays is here! And it's all about perfectionism: how it shows up in our business, why it shows up, and how to deal with it. Listen on Apple Podcasts or watch on YouTube. New episodes are available every Sunday. If you've listened, we'd love to hear your feedback!

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