Life is Service

Sometime over the weekend I had my 100,000th visitor to The Power Of Choice. (50,000 of which have been in the last year.)

Lets face it, that doesn’t make my blog the most popular in the world, but that’s not the way I see it. In my own way, I have touched 100,000 people through a very powerful digital medium.

I call this connection, service. Life is all about service. You need to make sure your needs are taken care of, as well as the needs of others, but there are billions of ways of doing service; from the humble person who shines your shoe to the super successful Hollywood types who get paid millions.

There are those who spend much of their time working for charitable organisations, or just helping those people who have difficulty helping themselves. Some people see meditation as a form of service by spreading positive vibrations.

Service is viewed in many different ways and it is given many different words. In my opinion the words ‘client’ and ‘service’ are part of the same family. You are doing your client a service. Client is the modern word given to those that we do service for.

Reward is often the result of service. When we serve others we are given some kind of remittance. Do you focus more on serving and the value you provide or are you more focussed on the remittance? Those who focus more on the remittance are the ones who often have to deceive or are the ones who do not succeed.

Have you noticed that even those people, who do great service and ask of nothing in return, get it returned many times over? It’s like those guru’s in India who do not ask for wealth or riches but yet it comes to them anyway because people want some way of showing their appreciation.

Service is foremost. It is the reason for being alive and in action! Without it we just exist and in a very empty, purpose-less way.

I believe that the return you get in value is exactly equivalent to the emotional response you create in others. Think about that for a moment. Why else is music so powerful and lucrative? Music evokes such powerful emotional responses within us that masses of people pay for it. It moves enormous groups of people and together they feel a sense of euphoria; something worth paying for.

Last Wednesday I was giving a talk at the PRU as I have done for the previous 2 years and I even though I was only speaking to small groups of these youngsters I could really feel and see the impact the words were having.

Mostly, I was there to speak from the heart because my story, from when I was younger, is one they can relate to. I also wanted those words to last a lifetime; to say something they will take away and use for the rest of their lives.

On the flip side, last Thursday I was hosting a cabaret event, organised by a belly dancer named Aurora with lots of pole dancers (even male ones), belly dancers, burlesque dancers, contortionists, magicians, comedians etc.

(A whole night spent with belly and pole dancers….now that’s my kinda way of doing service! Hubba hubba!)

Aurora had organised the event to raise money for the WWF because it was a cause that was close to her heart. It was a fun way of serving in a two fold sense. Not only was she organising and providing entertainment for a whole night but she was also raising money for a fantastic cause.

I was telling jokes in between and serving with humour, in my opinion, the most powerful form of service.

Recognise the forms of service that you do in your life. If there is a form of service you are not doing but want to do it, when are you going to start? How can you reach countless people and evoke emotional response? What kind of emotions do you evoke? Where is there a need for you to serve?

Just think of all all the things you can do…

– Tell a joke
– Tell a story
– Sing a song
– Write a song
– Write a book
– Through food
– A new product
– Teaching
– Dancing
– Entertainment
– Listening

This list could be endless so feel free to share your forms of service below.

BabyBliss Girls Bellydancers
The Babybliss Dancers

– Thanks to Maani for the picture.

37 Responses

  1. Hey Amit,

    Congratz! I think touching 100.000 people is quite a lot. Yes, there are more popular blog, yet few of the 7 billion people on the planet can pride themselves with impacting 100.000 other people in some way.

    The challenge in this line of work, in my perspective, is that we often lack real feedback from readers, we don’t see the results they get for ourselves, so it’s easy to trick ourselves into thinking that we have no impact.

    • Amit Sodha says:

      Hey Eduard, interesting thoughts on feedback because I do thrive from the feedback. So not knowing for me it’s often a killer but then again on the occasions when I do get feedback it does make the work incredibly satisfying.

  2. Amit,

    Congratulations on 100,000 visits! That is awesome! I remember not too long ago, you had 100th post milestone. I am so happy for your progress.

    I was being so touched and imagining you as a saint as I was reading “life is service” thing, until the last picture! Cool, you know how to balance service with little fun too, that is super! 🙂

    • Amit Sodha says:

      Hey Preeti, thank you so much…it was actually my 500th post so I’ve been going a long time. LOL @ saint, I definitely don’t know about that but glad you appreciated my sense of humour with that picture!

  3. rob white says:

    Wonderful to see that success, Amit. Yes indeed, being in service to the greater community is what life is all about. Everyone has a shining light that yearns to touch as many people as possible.

  4. Amit,

    This is my first comment on your blog, but not the first time visiting. I think reaching 6 figures for visitors is a good achievement, one which you can pat your self on the back. I wish you all the best for the future and I appreciate you and the information you project.

    Keep it up.

    • Amit Sodha says:

      Hey there,

      Thanks for sharing and making yourself know….it’s always wonderful to hear when people who’ve been popping by for a while drop in and say hello. I appreciate the input and the connection. Keep in touch! 🙂

  5. Amit,
    Great post. I love the title – simplicity is truth. I agree life is service. I also want to congratulate you on your 100,000 visitor. Also, you look pretty comfortable around all those pretty scantily clad women!

  6. Milan Bakrania says:

    That last picture sums it up…you had a great time bro! : )
    You are right, service is important. And it should always be innocent and without expectation. As with all things, it should be from the heart. Hey, Congratulations on your 100,000th visitor….Also, I’m sure I speak for so many people when I say thank you and appreciate your service in updating this blog with your wisdom and continuing to inspire everyone in your unique way. Keep up the good work!

  7. Sibyl-alternaview says:

    Amit: Congrats on the 100,000 visitors. That is by all means an important milestone and I am sure it came with a lot of hard work and dedication to your blog. I really liked this post and I think you make a great point that we all should know the best way we can serve others. I think our life just unfolds in the most amazing ways when we are genuinely focused on helping and serving other people and it makes sense that there are certain things we were meant to do in terms of service. Great post and great picture.

  8. Roman Soluk says:

    Congratulations on your 100 000th visitor, Amit! Wish you huge success in future. I’ve enjoyed your post!

    Besides, nice picture! 😉

  9. What an inspiring article! Service is definitely an important part of life. I love the idea of sharing my writing with the world. I also love small opportunities to help strangers, like opening the door for an elderly person. It’s wonderful to just give of yourself without expecting some type of return.

  10. Hi Amit,

    Congratulations on reaching such a milestone! Woo hoo! 🙂

    Life is truly about service. I have to tell you, reading this post of yours came at a perfect time as I am contemplating an idea that I have in an effort to be of service. So thank you for helping without realizing you were helping.

  1. September 21, 2010

    RT @amitsodha: Life Is Service http://bit.ly/cGZbIV

  2. September 21, 2010

    @ArvindDevalia RT @amitsodha: Life is Service http://bit.ly/cGZbIV Wonderful!

  3. September 21, 2010

    @ArvindDevalia RT @amitsodha: Life is Service http://bit.ly/cGZbIV Wonderful!

  4. September 21, 2010

    RT @amitsodha: Life is Service http://bit.ly/cGZbIV

  5. September 21, 2010

    Great way of thinking about life and what you have to offer =>RT @amitsodha: Life is Service http://bit.ly/cGZbIV”

  6. September 23, 2010

    RT @amitsodha: Life is Service http://bit.ly/cGZbIV

  7. April 8, 2011

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  8. June 25, 2012

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  9. June 25, 2012

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  10. June 25, 2012

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  11. August 5, 2012

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  12. September 2, 2012

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  13. October 24, 2012

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  14. December 24, 2012

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  15. March 14, 2014

    […] Life IS NOT meant to be taken seriously! Sure, we all go through shit, but sometimes you just have to sit back, laugh at yourself, and start fresh! […]

  16. March 14, 2014

    […] Life IS NOT meant to be taken seriously! Sure, we all go through shit, but sometimes you just have to sit back, laugh at yourself, and start fresh! […]

  17. May 12, 2015

    […] difficult as this journey has been, my desire to do service has not waned. In fact, in has […]

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