The human being who lives only for himself finally reaps nothing but unhappiness. Selfishness corrodes. Unselfishness ennobles, satisfies. Don’t put off the joy derivable from doing helpful, kindly things for others.”
A self-centered and selfish person lives only for himself. He does not know how to love and respect others. He argues over small matters and his life becomes but an endless journey in unhappiness.
Everybody is bound to be selfish from time to time. Although many elements of our society may encourage it, selfishness just hurts other people, sometimes at little to no personal gain. A selfish person also ends up losing friends or loved ones because no matter how charming or interesting a selfish person may be, a relationship with a selfish person is hard to maintain. A truly selfish person would never consider the possibility that they are selfish.
Most of us have a hard time with criticism, but at the same time, we know somewhere deep down that some criticism is necessary for improvement.
But selfishness rejects any sort of criticism. This is the person who completely flips out when someone criticizes them, for anything. They assume a true friend of theirs is a person who focuses only on their positives and ignores their negatives. So, when someone offers helpful critique with the full intention of helping them, they interpret it as scorn and disrespect.
Most are familiar with the story of Cain – how God rejected his sacrifice while accepting that of Abel, his brother. Cain, jealous of his brother and having no regard for anyone but self, murdered his brother.
Walking a mile in another man’s shoes can change your life for eternity. Of course, you won’t be able to actually do this, but you can put in the effort into thinking about the other people around you and considering how they might be feeling in any given situation. Consider how your mother, your friend, your boss, or a random person on the street may be feeling before you take action, and you may find that the world is not as clean cut as you thought it was. The more you practice empathy and wondering what other people are going through, the sooner you’ll be able to give up your selfishness. For example, before you start yelling at your waitress for giving you the wrong order, think about how she might be feeling. She might be tired from being on her feet for ten hours in a row, overwhelmed from having to work too many tables, or just feeling sad about something else; is it really necessary for you to make her feel terrible just to get what you want.
Selfish people cringe when someone else goes in the spotlight because they always want it for themselves. Well, if you want to stop being selfish, then you have to not only give up the spotlight, but you have to enjoy letting other people take it. Stop trying to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral and let other brides have their time in the spotlight. Be proud of other people for achieving things instead of wishing it was you. Let go of feelings of jealousy or bitterness and relish in the success of others. If you’re always wishing to be the one who is the most successful, then ask yourself if you’re missing something in your life that keeps you from being content with what you’re achieving.
People who are selfish are always thinking that their way of living life is best and that anyone who tries to give them feedback is just trying to do them harm or has ulterior motives. Sure, you can’t believe all of the criticism that comes your way, but if you focus enough, you might see that a lot of people are telling you the same thing. You can even work on asking for feedback when you’re struggling instead of just accepting it when it comes your way. That takes strength of character.
Being part of a team is a great way to become less selfish, whether you’re on a project for work, part of your school’s debate team, or a member of a bowling league in your community. Just being part of a group and learning to balance the needs of each individual member with the needs of the whole group can help you realize how important it is to give up some of your selfishness. Being a leader of this team can help you become even less selfish. You’ll see that the needs of any group can be more important than the needs of any individual, and that some compromise is inevitable for making people happy.
Overall, selfishness devours one’s virtue and ruins his/her morality. A selfish act will be poignant to our friends and hurt their feelings easily. When we focus on our own benefits at the cost of others’ resentments, we may be deprived of their kindness and friendships. Hence, to avoid being loathed, we are supposed to practice upon the Golden Rule and nourish our personality with humanly characteristics. The more selfless and sociable we become, the more we will be loved and the more friends we will find. So, let us kill selfishness in ourselves so as to revive virtue and morality.