It is easy to come to the belief that our personal position with God should be the main focus for the Christian life. We are, after all, called to be examples and live holy lives. However, I know that I personally have often come to the saddening conclusion that I am only able to sustain a holy lifestyle when I am focused on reaching others, being an example, or being a servant. These qualities seem to make it easier to to live the life God calls us to. I recently heard a guest speaker in a class say that he only wished he could recreate the dependancy on God that he had a a missionary here back in the states.
Why do we then struggle to fix ourselves instead of being outward focused? It is backwards to think that if we can fix ourselves we will be able to reach others. We know one fact to be foremost in all situations, and this is that God's glory always supersedes our humanity. There are three obvious issues: That God be glorified, that others see Christ, and that we live holy, set apart lives. All of these are directly related to one another.
However, it is proven to be a failing mindset to believe that a personal holiness will bring God's glory and show Christ to others. This is a system set for failure, because we are focusing on the least of the three, making it easiest to lose. The two greatest commandments are to love God foremost and to love others, so obviously the order in which we often approach these needs is faulty. It is healthy to purposefully glorify God even when we don't feel worthy or close to Him. Though repentance is key, we should train ourselves to unromantacize our walks with God and worship when we don't feel like it, reach out and minister when we don't feel worthy. We teach that truly loving a spouse is putting them first and doing things for their interests even when we don't feel in love or want to do it, but we treat God differently when we sin or lose sight of Him. There is no justifiable reason that we continue to beat ourselves up after God has forgiven us, but we ignore this and often stop even sooner by ignoring our sin, simply because we have false ideas of God in our mindset. Just as in any other, intrinsically lesser relationship, we should realize that our personal feelings and perceptions of our standing with God give no right to act selfishly.

Simply put, a life focused on the personal holiness in hope of achieving a servant and worship lifestyle is a life starting from a self centered, humanistic position, were we are foremost.

A life focused on serving God in every aspect and showing Him to others forgets self, and this is a truly glorious state of being.

Do not get me wrong, I am all for personal holiness, but it should come from a changed perception of the world.