Happy Martin Luther King Jr Day! Or, in the words of the national service movement, MLK Day is “a day on, not a day off.”

What does “a day on” mean anyway?

Generally, for those of us who have the day off from work, MLK Day is touted as a day to volunteer and be engaged. While metrics is what drives the service movement (or any movement for that matter) to up the numbers, metrics don’t take account into true value. If an organization hosts volunteers to paint their walls and the walls need to be repainted, that’s a loss of both time and money. But if an organization organizes volunteers to pick up trash and repaint the fences to beautify a park, there’s now a park that more people can enjoy.

A lot of organizations and individuals are doing the right thing. But there are also those who aren’t. Participating in this day when you haven’t figured out what you or your community needs is catering to your self image. When you fill a need, that speaks to your own self awareness.

But it feels good…

Only in your head.

It’s like resolving to not eat sweets in order to maintain healthy teeth, and not brushing your teeth. It’s an impressive commitment to stick to and tell yourself and others, but you’re not doing the actual work of achieving your real goal.

Or like posting a selfie of yourself working out, but you were only exercising for 5 minutes.

So what do I do about it?

Let’s get this straight — self image is not all bad. If there’s no self awareness behind what you do for self image, however,  it’s not going to last and you’re not going to get any better.

Be like a kid and keep on asking yourself why. When you can answer that, you’ll be stepping up.

Don’t ever let anyone build your world for you. They always build it too small.
—Holly Dean