Helping others by helping yourself

So I've had some experiences and thoughts as of late that all relate to the idea of helping others by helping yourself, and although on the surface that may seem like a very selfish statement, I've learned that it is actually quite the opposite.

PRINCIPLE #1 - the airplane principle
Anyone who has ever flown on an airplane knows that the first rule in the event of an in air emergency is to fix your own oxygen mask before helping others; with the justification being that you can't help others if you yourself pass out or die. Of course that principle can be applied to many other areas of our lives if we are spiritually, emotionally, or socially dead or dying, we're certainly not going to be able to help others in those areas. While an altruistic desire to encourage and support others in these areas is definitely noble, it's improbable if not impossible to do so if we don't help ourselves first. We put together a self reliance seminar recently for one of our relief society activities and it was a great reminder that although you can't meet all your own needs all the time, the more we work to become self reliant, the more we minimize our need for support and maximize our ability to give support.

PRINCIPLE #2 - the party principle
Perhaps some of you who are long past your single days are not as familiar anymore with the following scenario, but I'm sure we've all experienced it at one time or another. Imagine that the weekend's approaching, you want to go out and have some fun with friends but don't have any invites or plans yet.
Option 1 - you could stay home and probably feel a little sorry for yourself thinking poor me, no one invited me to do anything.
Option 2 - you could call or text several friends fishing for an invite to something and may or may not end up actually going out to do anything fun.
Option 3 - you could take some initiative, plan a party and start inviting people and discover that in your quest to help yourself you have suddenly also provided invites and entertainment for multiple others who probably would have chosen option 1 or option 2 had you not invited them to do something. There's a saying that sounds contradictory, but is really quite profound if you think about it. . . "We are all unique, which means we are really all the same". Which means in meeting my needs, I'll often meet yours too.

PRINCIPLE #3 - the selfless service principle
There's an old sitcom episode partially devoted to a disagreement between two characters on whether or not there truly is such a thing as selfless service. The argument being that whenever you do an act of service you always get something in return, even if it's just that good feeling so it is partially self serving. Which I guess is my way of wrapping up this whole thought to say that by helping yourself, you'll be more available and able to help others, which will in turn actually help you even more when you experience the blessings of service and true compassion and it just goes on and on.