Maria Gonzalez Blog
Mindful Leadership

To Truly Be of Service Is a Privilege and a Pleasure

If you don’t feel that your service is a privilege and a pleasure, then it is not really service.  It is a duty.  And it is important not to confuse duty with service.  To be of service is to have a particular attitude.

Service comes deep from within and carries with it compassion.  As I mentioned in last week’s blogs, compassion is deep caring without attachment. The other element of compassion which is worth repeating is self compassion.  Without self compassion it is very difficult to be compassionate towards others.  And if we we don’t pay attention to self compassion it is easy for our service to feel like and become a “duty”.  This can make it devoid of any pleasure or joy.  It then becomes an obligation, yet one more thing to add to the endless list of things to do.

It is easy to see how we can become overwhelmed and stressed under these conditions.

As Mindful leaders it is important to see if we are paying attention to our needs.  Then from that place of taking care of ourselves we can focus externally.  This applies equally to our professional and personal lives.

Having taken care of our needs, we can then prioritize and determine what we can realistically do.  There will be choices to make.  Contrary to popular belief, we can not have it all.  If we have a sense that we must have it all, then “Feel” is driving that belief.  And you know what to do with “Feel”.