3 Super Simple Ways to Serve Others

To live a meaningful life, you have to serve others — whether it’s by serving people in your work, your personal life, or your community.

Serving others gives us a sense of purpose, and that sense of purpose is what creates a meaningful life. It’s really as simple as that, but we tend to make serving others too complicated.

Our egos often kick in and tell us that we’re not good enough; that we don’t have anything valuable to offer. We overthink how we are going to serve others to the point of procrastination — waiting for the perfect moment or the perfect opportunity.

Well, that ends today! Serving others is so simple that you can do it all day long by practicing these 3 daily habits:

1. Define expectations. Don’t just assume that you know what the person you are serving wants or needs. Or that their timeline is the same as yours. Ask questions! Like, “How can I help?” “What is the importance of doing X?” “How do you imagine X is going to play out?” “What about X is keeping you up at night?” “What is your deadline for X?”
2. Mirror their language. This will make the person you are serving feel heard and understood, which is a simple way to gain trust. As you gain trust, people will give you more opportunities to be of service to them. For example, when I’m talking to a client in my accounting life, I try not to use accounting jargon. I listen to the words my client uses and mirror them. I don’t talk with a client the same way I would talk with a colleague.

Keep scrolling to find the simplest daily habit of all.