Lagniappe…

LAGNIAPPE...

A philosophy that pervades New Orleans and has become my ethos in life as a result of the time I spent living there...Roughly translated, it means " a little something extra"...But what I've come to understand, is that it truly means "I am in service to you"...

Last year, I took an oath myself, and asked my clients to join me...The task was simple in nature, but far from easy in execution...BE OF SERVICE TO THE WORLD...ALL of my clients joined me in this endeavor and together we pledged to go out into the world and be of service to it...Not for personal gain, nor for the bragging rights...For neither of those reasons constitutes true service...Rather, we chose to serve the world without concern for personal gain...My clients don't live in lack, so they had no problem making the leap to serving the world from their abundance...Serving the world, because they have blessings to spare and therefore have blessings to share, seemed an easy and natural transition...

What transpired over the next year, was nothing short of a miracle...Over and over again, I watched my clients AND MY TEAM (#creativeselfmastery) working to be of service to the world...And...Over and over, I watched the road rise up to meet them, each and every time they chose to serve...It was truly one of the most amazing years I've EVER experienced...

I (who, about a decade ago) had been so devoid of abundance, that I had actually worked out a suicide plan, and had put it into action, was now living in a world where abundance, love and freedom was common place...I had risen from the depths of lack, despair, addiction, and pain, to a level of love, freedom, abundance and generosity that I could never have imagined possible...

How...You may ask???

Quite simply, by giving a little something extra...Despite the fact that I felt I had nothing to give (or so I thought in my monkey mind) I chose to just give a little something extra...I had learned this from the countless "poor and under privileged" people of New Orleans...Give freely and without reservation, no matter how little you have to share, because learning to serve others (in spite of the fact that you feel like you've been hard done by the world) is where ALL THE MAGIC HAPPENS...I won't go into my previous hardships in this post because (as Steven Pressfield so aptly put it "Nobody wants to read your shit")...But, what I will say is this...My life was a swirling, sucking, eddy of despair until the moment I realized that, no matter how little I felt I had, there was someone who could benefit from a random act of kindness I preformed...

Being back in New Orleans, and reconnecting with the energy of LAGNIAPPE, has reminded me of how bad it once was for me, and how effortlessly I rose out of that pit of despair, by simply choosing to be of service to the world around me, and trying to give (no matter how little I felt I had to share) just that little bit something extra...

It is my fervent wish and prayer, that these words land somewhere in your heart (especially, if you are struggling at present) and that you too will join me in the challenge I pose here today, to ABOVE ALL, CHOOSE SERVICE, and that the blessings that rise from that will flood your life with joy, connection, love and satisfaction...

The world lays at your feet, begging you to welcome it in, but that can never truly happen until you choose to serve those around you with love and generosity...

-Marc DiFrancia