Perspective....selfless or selfish?

I try to be a giving person, I want others to be happy, I want to help where ever I can. I want to work for others so they can have time off, I want to bring more than one person's share of treats to the party, I want to sit with you when you are having a bad day, I want to pick up the check at dinner or lunch when your funds are a little stretched.

In Wicked, Elpheba sings

"...No good deed goes unpunished

No act of charity goes unresented

No good deed goes unpunished

That's my new creed.

My road of good intentions

Led where such roads always lead.

No good deed goes unpunished!...

One question haunts and hurts

To much, too much to mention:

Was I really seeking good

Or just seeking attention?

Is that all good deeds are

When looked at with an ice-cold eye?

If that's all good deeds are

Maybe that's the reason why

No good deed goes unpunished

All helpful urges should be circumvented

No good deed goes unpunished

Sure, I meant well -

Well, look at what well-meant did:..."

So where's does the difference lie? How can one person selflessly serve others? How do we make it completely about others and not about ourselves?

Like I said I like to do things for others, but do I do it because I like the attention in what sometimes feels like my invisible world, or do I do it because I genuinely care for those people and want to ease whatever burden they are carrying or to bring happiness to them. I would like to think the answer is 100% B but maybe it's not. Maybe it's a little of both. Does that make the service cheated in someway?

One of my goals that I made a couple months back was to serve more, and really I don't have an update how that one is going. The other goals I can look at and be like yes, taking continual good steps to get out of debt. Yes, proud of the weight loss that I've accomplished, or still need improvement in becoming spiritually stronger and more organized. But service is a hard one to measure, I mean I haven't done anything major, I haven't even shoveled my neighbor's driveway this winter, but are there little things that I do without noticing it's service to someone? I hope so, and I hope that I may be more aware through the year of ways that I can offer service to others whether the attention comes with it or especially if it doesn't.