Be selfish to serve not selfish to spend. Understanding this concept will take you far in your journey towards becoming an effective leader of yourself and others.
We all have heard of the term Servant Leadership. While I am surely a believer of this concept, I believe there is a strong misconception about what it really implies. Servant leadership deals with putting others before yourselves. The act of serving others for their own best interest regardless of the impact it has on your on well being. Servant leadership is a great concept however, I believe that in order to effectively serve others, we must first serve ourselves. By this I mean that we must first look out for our own state of mind and our own well being. This may sound selfish, but how can one be expected to serve others when they are suffering themselves? It is simply not a reasonable task for us humans.
We are selfish by nature because we need to be in order to live healthy. Think about a marathon runner running a race with zero carbohydrates in their system. They surly will break down before the finish line because of their lack of proper nutrition beforehand. We as aspiring leaders can be compared in the same light. We need to fill ourselves with positive vibes, habits, self-care and a healthy lifestyle in order to have enough energy to serve others. Without these aspects we will break down before we can make any type of impact on others. Just remember that being selfish is natural, do not feel bad for being human. There is a big difference in being selfish to serve and being selfish to spend. Selfishness is a necessity. Just make sure that your selfishness is serving as the carbohydrates for a cause beyond indulgence in yourself.
Swiss-Army Leadership 