Putting The Goals And Interests Above My Own

In summary of Philippians 2:4-5 it says, "Each of you should put yourself aside and not be interested in only in your own life / interests (things to your own advantage), but to the life and interests of others (learn to lend a helping hand.)  Your attitude should be the same as Jesus, thinking and acting like him."

Bottom Line:
Each of us needs to learn to put the goals and interests of others above our own.  We should think and act like Jesus, his attitude was one of putting others first and helping them accomplish their goals.

What this means for me:
God tells me to get beyond myself, I can’t just look at my viewpoint or my desires, I need to look at and consider the other persons viewpoints or desires.  Of course this does not come naturally to me.  To think like this will require an intentional shift, where I focus from looking at my needs to looking at someone else's needs.  It will also take God’ actively working in my life.  In retrospect, I find that things always work better when I understand where people are coming from.  It can lead to less conflict overall.  A key to understanding for me is too truly listen.  I actually need to learn to listen more than I talk.  To do so effectively, I’ll need to hold back and not be so anxious to make my point, or tell my side of the story or defend myself.  If I don’t listen I can often miss what they are saying. This reminds me of one of the Steven Covey’s Habits of Highly effective people - “Seek first to understand, then be understood.”   I can strive to be more like Christ when I ask “what is their needs and how can I meet them?”  So today’s verse and study is good example for me as I deal with conflict between two of my team members.  I need to coach them on seeking to understand and how to listen to each other.  I think both have preconceived notions of each other and infer upon each other what they think should happen.   For me, I’ll want to focus on really listening and then seeing what I can do to help others achieve their goals.