Why Should You Admit To Being Selfish When You Are?

Everyone will be selfish from time to time — and admitting to it is empowering.

Photo by Nadine Shaabana on Unsplash

You most likely strive to be a decent human being.

It doesn’t matter if you have lofty goals and huge ambitions — or just want to live a life you’re more often content than miserable with. Odds are, you’re a decent person.

Sure, you’re flawed. We all are. Nobody is perfect, save that everyone is perfectly imperfect. That means you will mess up, fail, get it wrong, make mistakes, and possibly even fuck it all up sometimes.

Unless you knowingly set out with bad intentions, knowingly hurt or harm other people, intentionally take in a way you know causes someone else lack or scarcity — you’re not a selfish person. Nor are you a bad person.

While people tend to overuse selfishness and to see things as selfish that aren’t in the harmful/hurtful/intentional sense, everyone does act selfishly from time to time. You make choices and decisions that you know are selfish and will cause hurt and/or harm.

This is unavoidable. Why? Because nobody exists in a void. No matter how introverted you might be, you still interact with other people from time to time. That means that you will act in a way that you are aware is selfish.

There’s not much to do for this. Save admitting that you were or are selfish — and going from there.

Sometimes you need to be selfish for yourself

Your mental, emotional, spiritual, and even physical health is best known by and to you. You’re the only one in your head, heart, and soul. Ergo, you alone know what you need to live as best you can.

In all likelihood, you have relationships with people in your life that will change. When that happens, those relationships might fray, crack, and even come apart. You can do lots of work to keep them together — but eventually, that might no longer serve you or the other person(s) involved.

Then you have a choice. Say no, walk away, and make a clean break for your wellness and wellbeing? Or stick it out, keep suffering, and negatively impact your self-care?