Win Today

#258 | Your Impact Is Greater Than You'll Ever Know: How Service Creates The Life You Want

• Ryan A. Cass

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Most people think changing the world requires massive influence, but real impact starts by serving one person well. We break down how small acts of generosity compound over time, why successful givers often win the long game, and how serving others creates more meaning, stronger relationships, and unexpected opportunities. Plus, practical ways to make service a weekly habit without adding more to your plate.

• Why small acts of service create outsized impact
• The difference between being generous and being a people-pleaser
• Simple ways to serve others this week and build a life that matters

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The Math Of Ripple Impact

SPEAKER_00

The average American will meet 10,000 people in their lifetime. 10,000 people. That's a lot of folks. But if every one of you changed the lives of just 10 people, and each one of those people changed the lives of another 10 people and another 10, then in five generations, 125 years, the class of 2014 will have changed the lives of 800 million people. 800 million people.

Winning Through Service

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to Win Today. This show is crafted for those who want to win in every aspect of their lives. Every week, you will learn from a renowned thought leader that will share a piece of a winning playbook that you can incorporate into your life. If this show has a positive impact on you and you see value in it, please share it with somebody and leave a rating and review so we can help more people win. The more people you are a who for, the more successful you will become. As motivational speaker Zig Ziggler once said, you can have everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want. Helping people get what they want doesn't mean you're doing all of the hows, but rather that through your resources, whatever those may be, you can enable them to get what they want and need. That's from one of my favorite books that I've referenced on the podcast quite a bit, Who Not How. And the premise of the book is advancing in life, how to advance in life by being a powerful who to somebody else, and also leveraging the who's in your network to get where you want to go. But what I'm going to focus on there is when is it relates to being a who for somebody. And as you heard there in the quote, the excerpt, that by being somebody that will help somebody, by being a resource, by being a vessel to somebody else in life other than you, then you will get the life that you want. You heard the opener by Admiral Bill McCraven, which I'm gonna throw some more of the speech into this podcast here, that talks about changing the world and making a difference in the world doesn't mean you have to touch a million people. But who you are being to one or to ten is all that is needed to make this world a better place. For you to focus on being a vessel of service to one person for the goodness of this world, and secondary for the goodness of your life, because it always, always, always comes back and pays dividends. So this is how we become vessels of service and make an impact far greater than we could have ever imagined in this life.

Who Not How In Real Life

SPEAKER_01

So, what made me pull out this book is occasionally I have a lot of books in my house. I'll go back and highlight the heck out of them, and every now and then I'll pick them up just because either I'm thinking about them or there's a topic in my life that's relevant to a book. And I'm in a new coaching program now that is really focusing on service, not so much here's how to build a business and here's how to be a great coach, but it is about abundantly serving people and creating an experience for them that is so meaningful that they want to come work with you. And it's even if even if there's never a dollar exchange, that we you create an experience so powerful that they remember it, and if anything, they go and take it and and become a better person for themselves and the people in their lives and immediately go make an impact there, if nothing else. Y'all know that if you're a loyal listener, have been tuning in for a long time, that service is of the utmost importance to me, and I believe that it is the key to one of the keys to living and creating, more so creating and then living an incredible life. It just happened that taking this book off the shelf and going through some notes was very useful. So pulling out another thing that stood out in this book that I had highlighted long ago. This is a quote from Adam Grant. Successful givers are every bit as ambitious as takers and matchers. They simply have a different way of pursuing their goals. If you insist on a quid pro quo every time you help others, you will have a much narrower network. Givers succeed in a way that creates a ripple effect, enhancing the success of people around them. Now, it doesn't say in here how many people you have to give to, how many people you have to serve. And going back to what Admiral McCraven said, one person, one decision, helping one person, giving to one person is all you need to make a difference. Going a little further in this book, here's one that I put a heart on. So certain times when I'm reading, I'll highlight a lot of things, but if something really speaks to my heart, then I put a heart on it. So this one, I don't know how many years ago I first read this book, but there's a heart on it, so I'm gonna share it with you.

Volunteering Without Expecting Rewards

SPEAKER_01

If you don't know, if you don't yet know how to connect with people in this more conscious and reciprocal manner, a great way to learn is simply by volunteering. Learn to serve other people without any expectation for reward. Learn to devote yourself to a cause and to other people's goals, even if you get no fanfare. If you're useful and continue being generous, the world will be very good to you. You'll have all the opportunity in the world you need because you'll have freedom of relationship. Never stop providing value to your who's, especially the who's that have been in your life for a long time. So that said, it's my wish that you're connected to something that is bigger than you. And sometimes I'll hear people say, Oh, this might be silly if I'm connected to the animal society, and I love to go help cats and walk dogs. The only person that's telling you whatever it is that you may be minimizing, or perhaps stopping yourself from going and doing, the only person that's that's gonna tell you it's silly is you. The way I like to look at service and doing something for somebody else, or being there for an organization, is it's an invitation. You're creating an invitation by who you are being, by choosing to serve, you are creating an invitation for somebody else in this world to do the same thing. And then if that person goes and does the same thing because of the invitation that you created and they accept it, they are then going to create the invitation for somebody else. And somebody else and somebody else. And to further ingrain this concept that one person, yes, you, can actually change the world and make a gr impact far greater than you could have ever imagined by helping one person, by making one decision, by serving one.

One Decision Can Save Generations

SPEAKER_01

We're gonna go back to Admiral McCraven, check this out.

SPEAKER_00

If you think it's hard to change the lives of ten people, change their lives forever, you're wrong. I saw it happen every day in Iraq and Afghanistan. A young army officer makes a decision to go left instead of right down a road in Baghdad, and the ten soldiers with him are saved from a close-in ambush. In Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, a non-commissioned officer from the female engagement team senses that something isn't right and directs the infantry platoon away from a 500-pound IED, saving the lives of a dozen soldiers. But if you think about it, not only were those soldiers saved by the decisions of one person, but their children were saved. And their children's children. Generations were saved by one decision, one person. But changing the world can happen anywhere, and anyone can do it.

SPEAKER_01

Hearing that, think about the power that you really have as one person that can do one thing. We have so much more power to make a difference than we could ever imagine. And you don't need to wait or think that you need to be up on a stage giving a commencement's address just as Admiral McRaven was to make an impact. He just said it right there. One person and one thing is all that is needed to change the world.

Simple Ways To Serve Daily

SPEAKER_01

Now, I'll give you a few examples, applications as to what service could be and some things that I've been focused on more intentional about, and with again with the intention that hey, it'll create at least one invitation for one of you to do one of these things, or perhaps this just gets your creative juices flowing, and you pick whatever is most relevant or speaks to your heart and mind the most. But one thing that has really been the easiest and thing that I've been doing more than anything over the last about a year or so, year and a half, two things. One sending people a quick message of encouragement for what they're doing and how they are challenging themselves. I'm I'm surrounded by a bunch of absolute animals that are training for marathons, ultramarathons, triathlons, many of them doing it for their first time. And even sending them an a quick message letting them know, hey, I'm I'm keeping up with you, I'm watching, love what you're doing, keep it, just keep it going. I've I've received more messages back with gratitude in that had no idea that you were watching, this means so much, so on and so forth. And again, I don't expect to even receive anything back other than I want people to know hey, I'm rooting for you, I see you, and I'm here for you if I can be of service in any way beyond just being encouraging. There's one, two, and I talked about this one last year, is writing gratitude cards, thank you cards to people and sending them off for no reason other than I appreciate you, love what you're doing, and I want you to see, I want you to feel that because I feel like in this day and age, yeah, the text messages are great, but taking the extra literally 30 seconds to 90 seconds to write out a card and shoot it off to somebody, again, is paid massive dividends, and it's something that any of us can do. It's old school, it works, and people absolutely love it. Go and help one person find something that is is on your heart, find an organization that aligns with what you want to do or something that is close to you. I've been a part of Big Brothers, Big Sisters for about nine years now, and I get to serve the person that I once was. I get to serve the youth that are in broken households that could really benefit from having an adult figure that is consistent in their life. That brings the most joy to me is being a big brother. Maybe hearing that's something that speaks to you too. Maybe you were coming from a broken household and you would have loved to have nothing more than a mentor. There's another way to be a vessel of service. Another one is and this is this is a fun one. When you're out in a service, when you're out in a place of service, so if you're out at a getting a haircut, if you're out grocery shopping, if you're out at your at your favorite restaurant, giving a genuine compliment to the person that is serving you. Because believe it or not, these people do not hear very nice things all the time, nor frequently, other than the occasion, you know, the what's frequent is thank you so much, appreciate your help, have a nice day. But taking it a step further and calling out a specific thing that they said or did, or checking in with them to know what is what's going on in in their life, it's amazing that I find it so amazing that even the the woman that cuts my hair, the fact that just by checking in with her about her nephew and her cats and her recent vacations, and then following up with that the next time that I see her, and then being told you're the only person that actually checks in and remembers blows my mind, but that is changing that person's life, it's making a positive impact. That person can then be that to somebody else, or somebody that is in the vicinity that is witnessing or hearing me do this thing, is getting the invitation that, oh wow, just by checking in on someone, going a step further beyond just viewing them as a service worker, can actually pay off. And not to say this has really given me any rewards, I've been bumped up to the front of the line, or she's held my spot before. Maybe has given me some extra hair product, not that I'm a hair product guy, but but those things do come back and they do they do pay off.

Stop Chasing Outcomes Start Serving

SPEAKER_01

It's not a matter of doing all of these complex things. It's being somebody that perhaps you wish you would have in a certain moment or in a certain period of your life every time that I get behind this microphone, I think about one person, and it's not a particular person, but I think that there is one person, and I don't know who that's gonna listen to this that that needs this right now. And this is the thing that speaks to them. And sometimes, by surprise, people reach out to me that I I've in many cases have never met to let me know how this has made a difference in their life. And sometimes I get in my head that, yeah, this podcast doesn't have a million downloads, and I've been doing this for a long time, and how come it's not more known, and etc. But that's focusing on outcomes. When I remove myself, and when you remove yourself a little bit from outcomes and just think about, hey, this is this is service, this is connecting to the soul. It pays dividends and things work out. So even with the quotes I mentioned there from the book, approach service from a standpoint of simply that service. Good things will come, but don't go into it with the intent of I'm doing this so that I can get outcome XYZ. Because if it's forced, it's probably not gonna happen. But what I can assure you from experience in doing these little things, it will improve your life, it will improve the lives of others around you, it will improve the lives of the people's families that you are doing these things to and for and with. And then imagine the ripple effect from there. So it's my wish that as you hear this, that you choose to serve one person, do one meaningful thing this week, and that's how we're gonna make this world a better place and create an impact far greater than we could ever know and win today. Thank you.

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Ryan Cass

Host