March 23, 2010 | Posted in: Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully

Comments Off on Service & Self Care First, Clients Second

I know the saying is usually the customer comes first. But I have to take issue with that. Just like the oxygen masks from the ceiling, put your mask on first before you can help others.

If we serve and take care of ourselves first, taking care of our health, wealth and vitality, then it will resonate with others who are feeling the same way. If we are feeling burned out, rusted out and about to give out; what kind of clients do you think will resonate with that? If we are starving and struggling, how can we be feeding and leading? We must serve ourselves first in order to be strong, healthy and vital before we can show others the way.

Do we want to attract the low vibrational folk? Maybe we do, if our service is to help them raise their vibration. But the deal is, it’s not just clients you attract when you’re at a certain vibration, it’s everybody and everything.

We may have learned early on that taking care of ourselves first is selfish. I shout from the rooftops that we need to take care of ourselves and guard our energy fiercely, or else we won’t have any to give away. You can’t give what you don’t have. So we must have our vitality and energy first, then give it away to others and help them find their own.

For instance, creating is like breathing for me – it’s so reflexive. If I can’t be creating something, anything (articles, sewing, cooking, decorating, art, programs), I get antsy. That is why it’s critical for me to guard my morning time as fiercely as I guard a meeting with a VIP, by the way, that’s ANYBODY.

I know if I don’t get ‘me time’ to create, I’m cranky and I can’t rebuild my energy stores. I know my body rhythms and I’m the most creative in the morning and brain dead