Every time I make a list of life dreams I list "philanthropic efforts" as my most desirable life mission. I list more ideas related to philanthropy than any other single area of success categorized by enrichr.com. I have hundreds of philanthropic ideas, such as: making documentaries meant to advocate the needs of Hispanic immigrants; creating foundations that teach Hispanic business owners how to become more profitable; grass root efforts to educate Latin America on the value of a more transparent government, more accessible legal and property system, and the benefits of borrowing money against your assets to create capital. I could go on and on about the different ways I want to help change the world. Funny thing about my philanthropic plans is that they don’t get scheduled into my daily life.

Even though I want to do more with serving others than I want in any other category of success, I schedule less time to service than all other categories. Does this mean I am hypocrite? That is undeniable. After all, I am a hypocrite in every other area of my life so why should I think that I am less of one when it comes to my selfless pursuits of success? Once I come to grips with this, however, I have to actually face the real discreprancy of why I am hypocritical. The reality is that if I am more inspired by service and that category shows up the very least on my daily schedule there has to be an explanation outside of my character flaws. I have identified some other reasons why service takes a back seat to other daily action items.

First, changing the world is quite vague. What is that supposed to mean? Do I have to buy a plane ticket to an exotic country and bathe in a crocodile infested river to make a dent in poverty? Or does it mean that I have to be famous or rich or smart or well connected? What exactly do I mean when I think of improving other people’s quality of life. The answer is that I only partly know what I mean.

The fact that I haven’t refined an abstract idea into a practical action item is a clear testament to the reasons that I haven’t fully thought through what philanthropic efforts I should address. This is the opposite of how I deal with money action items. I think of what I can do today to make money then I think of long term projections. This doesn’t mean that looking from now to then or then to now has any advantage over one another it only represents the fact that my dreams some times aren’t thoroughly thought through which might help explain the reason why they go unscheduled.

The second reason why I am not as active in engaging serviceable activities as much as I attend to other areas of self-development is because I don’t think of service as an action item but rather a random act of kindness. This is actually negative because it reduces my focus to only serve during emergency type situations. I have justified my poor service performance by telling myself that "I serve whenever the opportunity presents itself". For example, I help push a car off a busy intersection, or I pull over to offer someone a ride when they are stranded. This of course can’t easily be scheduled. The problem is that my awareness of service becomes limited to addressing problems that spontaneously occur within my daily life. I completely over look all the problems that I am not exposed to. What of old people in old folks communities? I have absolutely no exposure to them but my influence could be just as significant as the influence I have with stranded people.

Maybe, to address this problem, I should involve a mentor to improve my exposure to people’s needs within my sphere of influence. Just as mentors can help expose their pupils to opportunities that exist in the business world a mentor can do the same with all other areas of success. That is what a professor should be doing at Universities to develop intellectual success. It is also what spiritual leaders should accomplish with regard to spiritual success. Philanthropy is related to spiritual success so maybe a spiritual leader is a great mentor to use. Also friends and family can increase my exposure to others’ needs. Face it, everyone knows of opportunities to serve within their immediate reach yet still fail to address them.

This brings me to my final discovery about myself. The reason that I neglect serving people even when I am aware of the opportunity is because I feel that my scheduled action item is more urgent. Though it sounds ridiculous, the written objective seems to almost always take precedence above the randomly presented potential activities. Somehow, my mind doesn’t allow me to give the potential item as much value.

I have decided that the way I am going to address this is to write my service goals as action items. Some of these action items can be scheduled. These are the ones that my spiritual leaders, friends, and family can help me identify. The type of service which is easy to include on a calendar. The other action item is the kind that can’t easily be scheduled but can be done on a daily basis. This will be listed on my calendar as an A1 priority that I have to seek out. I will then be more aware when random potential opportunities present themselves and compete with an urgent previously scheduled item. The service now has at least a fighting chance to be accomplished. That is, unless, my hypocrisy flares up.