Providing Service After Hurricane Ian

Damage incurred from Hurricane Ian by a Shell Station

In all our talk about Self-Action Leadership, a natural question is likely to arise in the minds of our readers, and the question is this...

SELF-ACTION LEADERSHIP for what? 

In other words, WHY is Self-Action Leadership so important, and WHAT is its ultimate purpose or endgame?

These are good questions, and there are many different answers to them. You might, in fact view every blog post we ever publish as being an answer—either directly or indirectly—to these important questions.

Today's post provides one of the most important and direct answers to this question, and the answer is...

SERVICE

On Saturday, our team got to use chain saws
and other tools to help clean up floral debris
from by Hurricane Ian

Without any doubt, one of the most important reasons we seek to develop ourselves and others as self-action leaders is to develop the intelligence, capacity, skills, time, energy, motivation, resources, and means to HELP  OTHER  PEOPLE. 

There are many different ways we can help other people; so many ways, in fact, that we could not possibly name or number them all. Of all the ways in which we can help others, our favorite is, of course, to teach, coach, model, and mentor others in the principles and practices of SAL. 

Why is this our favorite way to serve? 

Because SAL breeds SELF-RELIANCE, and self-reliance fuels the advancement and interdependency of the human race; and the advancement and interdependency of the human race benefits and blesses us all.

We are therefore deeply interested in teaching and training other people to become better at helping themselves. After all, there is no better way to serve another person than to empower him or her with the capacity and motivation to lift oneself and then reach out to further help others. In the words of a famous quote...

"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime."

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs teaches us, however, that education and the development of self-reliance are dependent on the fulfillment of certain, basic and primal needs that precede education and actualization. In other words, there are times when people need immediate aid in the form of those basic supplies required to promote safety and sustain life.

The occurrence of natural disasters is an example of a time when people—of no fault of their own—find themselves in need of outside aid that they are unable to immediately provide for themselves. Or, even if they can help themselves, they may be temporarily overwhelmed by the unusual circumstances and could greatly benefit from some outside assistance, support, and encouragement.   

A destroyed McDonald's sign in
Port Charlotte, Florida, area.

My son and I had the chance over the weekend to provide service to victims of last week's devastating hurricane in Southwest Florida, USA. With maximum winds reaching 150 miles per hour, Hurricane Ian—a Category 4 storm—joins several other storms as the fifth (5th) most powerful hurricane in the recorded history of the United States.

This storm hit close to home, literally, for me. This is because I live on the East Coast of Florida, just a three-hour drive from where Hurricane Ian made landfall on Florida's West Coast. In other words, the storm could have just as easily devastated my hometown in Palm Beach County. We quite literally dodged a bullet, or to be more metaphorically accurate, a nuclear explosion—because that is the kind of power these massive Category three (3), four (4), and five (5) hurricanes unleash.  

I was raised in the Intermountain West, where I never had to worry about hurricanes. My wife, Lina, on the other hand, grew up in Homestead, Florida, which, back in 1992, bore a direct hit from Hurricane Andrew—a Category 5 storm and the third (3rd) most powerful hurricane in U.S. history. That infamous storm devastated southern Miami-Dade County, including my wife's family's home. The damage to their house was so bad, in fact, that they had to relocate to Orlando, Florida for six-months while their home was repaired. Consequently, my wife attended most of kindergarten in Orlando while living at her grandma's house. 

A traffic light casualty
of Hurricane Ian

Because Lina is an old pro at living in hurricane country, we have taken care to prepare ourselves since moving to Florida last year. Such preparations included purchasing a home with high impact windows, replacing our front door with a storm-strength door, buying hurricane shutters to enclose our back patio, procuring extra water and other supplies for storage, and most importantly, purchasing INSURANCE.

Historically speaking, odds are you aren't going to be dealing with a major hurricane every year, or even every few years. But... it only takes ONE big storm to gravely damage—or worse—completely wipe out everything someone has built or worked for. This fact became soberingly evident for me while touring some of the worst hit areas by Hurricane Ian. 

My son, Tucker, next to a pile of floral debris
at a house in Fort Myers on Florida's West Coast.

The purpose of our trip was to provide SERVICE to those affected by the storm. We traveled over as part of a team assembled from my Church congregation. Specifically, our job was to clean up floral debris (e.g. fallen tree leaves, limbs, and branches) and other items (e.g. roof shingles) that had been displaced by the storm.

Our team had the chance to service two different properties. The first was in Fort Myers, where the damage was not as severe. The second was in Englewood, where the destruction was much worse.  Unfortunately, my car—and the four members of our team inside—never made it to Englewood because we ended up running low on gas due to poor planning on my part. This error of mine led to our experiencing one of the egregiously long gas lines at one of the relatively few gas stations that had fuel to sell and electricity to dispense it.

Waiting in line for Gas in Port Charlotte, Florida,
three days after Hurricane Ian devastated the area.

After a 2.5 hour wait, we finally managed to make it to the front of the line, where all fuel had been exhausted except for Premium unleaded. Despite the higher price—and the "Cash Only" policy in force, our prayers were answered when we were able to cobble together enough cash and put enough fuel in my car to get us home that evening. 

It was quite a day!

     An educational, sobering, humbling day.

Although we never made it to Englewood, we did get to drive through Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte, two areas in the Gasparilla Sound - Charlotte Harbor area that were among the communities worst hit by Hurricane Ian.    

Despite the relatively small contribution our team made, it felt good to provide SERVICE to these residents of West Florida who have been so terribly impacted by the devastation of Hurricane Ian.  

Purchasing food and other supplies
for victims of Hurricane Ian

Today, I received another opportunity to provide additional service by purchasing a grocery cart full of much-needed supplies. After picking my kids up from school, we took the supplies to a community center that was collecting the items to ship over to those in West Florida who are in great need of basic commodities such as non-perishable food, toiletries, diapers, etc. It was another chance to do our bit to try and help those who have lost so much. It was also an outstanding teaching moment for my kids, who were able to help me buy and transport the goods to their shipping destination.   

Life is full of challenges and difficulties. Some adversity is self-inflicted. Other obstacles are placed in our way by no fault of our own. Natural disasters are an example of such a burden. As we go throughout our lives, we will all experience times and circumstances when we will need a helping hand from someone else. Knowing this, it makes sense that self-action leaders would be service-minded and service-oriented people. 

As you seek to develop your own talents, skills, and other aptitudes as a self-action leader, REMEMBER that one of the greatest causes in which you can ever be engaged involves SERVICE to your fellow beings. So prepare (and maintain) yourself today to be the greatest servant of mankind you can possibly be through your own unique contributions to others throughout your life. And the next time an opportunity comes your way to serve others, don't neglect it; seize the moment, get moving, brings others along with you if possible, and together make a difference!

That's just what SELF-ACTION LEADERS do!

Delivering our donation to a community center for
distribution to victims of Hurricane Ian

I promise that the more you SERVE others, the happier and more fulfilled you will feel and be in your own life and career. It will also lead you into the pathways of greatness. As the great business philosopher, Jim Rohn, once put it: "If you want to be great, then find a way to serve the many; for service to many leads to greatness."

"Service to many leads to greatness."

—Jim Rohn

I would add to this statement that the number (quantity) of people you impact is not as important as the authenticity (quality) of the service you provide. Not everyone will have the opportunity to impact the lives of millions like Jim Rohn, or Abraham Lincoln, or Harriet Tubman, or Gandhi, or Florence Nightingale, or Martin Luther King, Jr., or Jesus. But like Jesus, we can strive to do our best to help others along the pathways of our life's journey, and the result of such actions will always lead to blessing others and to our own soul satisfaction. 

—Dr. JJ

October 5, 2022

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 286th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 115th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.   

Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 285 FF Blog Articles.  

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