Selfishness

I have always thought that being selfish meant that you step on others, you only look out for your own needs, but I recently listened to an interview with Neale Donald Walsch– author of Conversations with G-d, and it changed my whole vision of selfishness.

Naele describes being selfish as understanding your purpose in life and being selfish in order to achieve it. So instead of feeling that being selfish would mean only doing what is best for ME, being selfish is actually what is best for my purpose in life.

That shifts things profoundly for me as I believe my purpose is to make this world a better place, my purpose is to raise good children, my purpose is to be healthy, and so on. When I look at it through that lens, it’s a lot easier for me to be “selfish” as I want to do things that will help others. I do want to do things that are selfish to ensure my children contribute to the world when they grow up instead of just taking from it.

So I challenge you to shift your thinking as well. What can you do to be more selfish to ACHIEVE your purpose? And do you even know what some of your purposes in life are? Once you start writing them down, they will flow. Once you start focusing on them and understand how you fit in with the bigger picture, it’s much easier to be selfish because you will feel good about doing it.