Posts Tagged ‘Self-Image’
I Know and I Feel vs. I Do and I Believe
Thursday, November 26th, 2009There is a particular philosophy that Anthony Robbins made very popular, the idea that if you act a certain way, you will be that way. For example, if you look up and smile, you will tend to be happy, so, do the things that you do when you’re happy, and you will be happy. There certainly is a lot of truth to that, but I think it’s difficult to hold that kind of discipline for a sustained period of time. And, if your thinking isn’t there, your happiness will only last for as long as you do the activity.
I met with a gentleman recently from a company called Leadership Performance Forum. He put a twist on this philosophy that got me thinking, and I want to share it with you today.
As humans, we can learn things and gain Knowledge; we can do things and perform Work; we can have emotions and display Feelings; and, finally, we can have a self-image of how we Believe we are. So, we can say I KNOW, I DO, I FEEL, I BELIEVE.
Our school system promotes the I KNOW and is very sensitive to the I FEEL parts of our life. The mass media places a gigantic emphasis on the importance of I FEEL. My new friend’s opinion is that the other two are far more important, and are what really leads to results. He said we’ll never have any sustained increase in fulfillment or joy in life if we don’t increase our self-image (BELIEVE). And the best way to increase our self-image is through WORK, what we DO. Work meant as ‘meaningful service to others with favorable results’.
If you work in service to others, and you begin to see results from your service in their lives, there is no amount of money that can replace that. Don’t miss the importance of results here. It’s one thing to serve others just to serve, while it’s quite another to serve with a purpose of getting results (not necessarily monetary results). This is what the capitalist model is designed for. It’s easy to take advantage of and make money without a great deal of service, but that is not its intended design. The great thing is that, when you learn to really Serve, people will compensate you for your service, and the more they compensate you, the more your self-image increases and the more people you want to go serve. It is a fulfilling cycle. And this is what Leadership is about.
So, Go out there, DO the work, server and build your BELIEF: you’ll reap the results of True Leadership!
