I interviewed the legendary Dr. James Hollis last week — one of the world’s leading Jungian analysts.
One of my key takeaways was a question Dr Hollis regularly asks himself when he’s doing something:
“What is this in service to inside of me?”
We live in a society optimised for external appearances, which is reflected in much of modern psychology and self help — with books like “Atomic Habits” becoming mega bestsellers in recent years.
But behaviours alone are only one half of a two sided coin.
And if we’re doing things that might appear “good” from the outside for the wrong reasons internally, we might as well not bother doing them.
For example, if you volunteer not because you genuinely want to help others—but because you want others to know that you volunteer—then it’s no longer an act of service, but an ego trip.
The power of Hollis’ question is that it brings to light the actual intentions underneath our actions — and helps us to avoid believing our own hype.
As Richard Feynman said:
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”
From Hollis, we learn that intention is equally as important as behaviour.
And that we need to pay as much attention to the source from which our actions are flowing, as the actions themselves.
So the next time you find yourself doing something—particularly if it doesn’t feel quite right inside—ask:
“What is this in service to inside of me?”
The full interview with Dr Hollis will go live on TWU’s YouTube channel next Thursday at 8am GMT.
