Doing favors for others is one of the essentials of true religiosity. The holy rabbi, Reb Kalonymus Kalman of Peasetzna, who, in the Warsaw Ghetto was the rebbe of hundreds of children, many of them orphans, would always teach them this, saying: "Children, precious children, just remember — the greatest thing in the world is to do somebody else a favor." (Heard from a great rabbi and tzaddik.)
It is a good practice to say, before doing a favor or an act of kindness for people, "I am doing this to fulfill 'and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.' " That way you elevate what might be a normal good tendency of yours by seeing it in its inner meaning.
— Yitzhak Buxbaum in Jewish Spiritual Practices