November 27, 2011

“What’s in it for me?”

molly published this at 3:00 am

“What’s in it for me?” If you have had any sales training of any sort, this mantra will be a familiar teaching prompt which will have been drilled into your head as a means for you to help you help your customer.

In order to get what you want (ie. commission, job security, a raise etc.), you must be able to help someone else obtain what they want.

Although this can appear to have a cynical slant, it’s actually quite unselfish if you can see it from a true symbiotic exchange of energy and matter.

What does this have to do with discipline, right? This week’s post is probably the most woo-woo of the three. Bear with me for a sec.

Over the previous few weeks, we’ve discussed three underpinnings of self-discipline and how to achieve it, namely:

  1. Love what you do.
  2. Like who you are.
  3. Respect yourself in others.

For the purposes of this post, I have reduced high math and physics to exceedingly rudimentary assumptions and theories. Based on the modern theory of matter, energy and matter are very closely related. Further, I believe that we ourselves are highly structured and articulate forms of energy, supported by a network of matter (which itself is probably a denser expression of energy).

I would also posit that there is only so much matter and energy in the form of raw materials available on this planet. Therefore, chances are good that each of us is probably repurposed from various existing carbon molecules lying around. This human genetic variation, when figured into a global model, gives us a pretty good visualization of our true common humanity.

When I say ‘respect yourself in others,’ it’s because quite frankly, there’s probably some of your DNA floating around out there in your neighbor, so to speak.

Last week’s post discussed “liking you you are.” The extension and extrapolation of this premise is that if you like who you are, logic dictates that you must like yourself in others.

“A man’s manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

You can tell much about a person by the way he or she treats others, especially those who can do him or her “no good.” To bring this back to the ‘what’s in for me’ symbiosis example from the first paragraph, when we discipline ourselves from a perspective rooted in respect for Other, we are, in fact honoring ourselves. Paradoxically, when we give from a position of truly wishing to elevate another, we are ourselves elevated.

I don’t think of this as the same as altruism, per se; but wanting to achieve and holding ourselves to a higher standard through discipline for the betterment of The Whole is pretty close. Closer to altruism would be the understanding and willingness to be strong for others until they could achieve strength on their own. This could be seen in a parent-child relationship; mentor-mentee or any other assumption of sacrifice on behalf of another.

Have you ever been the beneficiary of someone else’s discipline? How did it help you grow? How did affect your willingness to help another? Can you recall times when you chose to discipline yourself for the betterment of others? What was your motivation?

——-

Molly Cantrell-Kraig is a woman with drive. Possessing an innate sense of purpose and a pragmatic, solution-based approach to empowering people, she fused these two traits in order to establish Women With Drive Foundation. Based upon its founder’s personal history, Women With Drive Foundation is a means through which Cantrell-Kraig may effect change on both a micro and macro level. By providing women with something as essential as personal transportation in order to transition them from poverty to prosperity, she, through Women With Drive Foundation, seeks to empower women to help them help themselves. Through this action, the individual applicant benefits, as does society as a whole. Follow Molly on twitter as @mckra1g or @WWDr1ve (Women With Drive Foundation) or “Like” them on facebook.

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Filed under Motivation-Inspiration, Successful Blog | 1 Comment »


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1 Comment to ““What’s in it for me?””

  1. November 27th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
    Universal Life Church said

    I am in complete agreement. As you give, so shall you receive. We are all part of the whole, so if you are empowering others with the intention of it being good for the whole, then everybody wins. If a situation isn’t win/win, then there’s something missing from it.

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