Priorities sometimes shift. That would be why I haven’t had the opportunity to write a blog post for a couple of months. I did however have the opportunity to serve members of my faith and community for a 3-month period. This was totally voluntary and sacrifices were made.

In this experience and opportunity to serve I learned several things that I would like to share:

1. How you greet others on your team impacts your day. Each day that I was training tour guides for the LDS Fort Lauderdale Temple Open House new tour guides would come on each shift. I found that my attitude set the tone for the entire shift. It was critical to greet each guide with love and warmth. It may be a little thing to greet someone with a smile – but that may be the only smile they get the entire day.

2. Keeping a sense of humor. Throughout the weeks of serving I was outside in the mid afternoon sunshine. There were a couple of days that weather came in. One in particular we started experiencing thunder and lightning and was told by security to move out of the structures we were using as they weren’t grounded. This inconvenience of having to run to my car in the downpour of rain ruined a pair of shoes and freaked some of our team out. Rather than letting the emotion or fear take over keeping a sense of humor is critical to keep everyone in a positive mindset.

3. Enjoying the moment. Taking time away from my business was a sacrifice. It was also however an incredible life changing and more than likely once in a life experience. These tour guides that I trained provided tours to over 55,000 individuals in South Florida. It was an amazing experience. And now as I fondly look back I’m grateful for each amazing moment and the incredible people that I had the pleasure of working with.

4. Finding something bigger than myself. When we invest ourselves in causes for good we trigger a greatness that we can only imagine. Often times we may be hesitant to push our shoulder to the wheel in worthwhile efforts. Through this experience I gave really a drop of time in the far-reaching impact that the events created. Lessons learned will be guiding principles throughout my journey.

5. Body language of 12-18 year olds never lie. Having the opportunity to work with 1200 youth was a great study in furthering my research of what body language communicates. Their bodies speak louder than words could ever speak. It was evident when they were bored, uncomfortable or having a great time.

These lessons learned can be applied to business and personal activities. When given the opportunity to serve I may go in the experience thinking that I will be giving such great value but the amazing result is how much more I gain.

Serving is one of the best kept secrets to having a happy and prosperous life!