The Key To Happiness Is Being Even MORE Selfish

We all are selfish. It’s a fundamental characteristic of all human beings. Whether it’s a flaw or a strength — that’s a debate people are going to die trying to find a conclusion for.

All I know is, this “selfishness” is the driving factor of life, without which we all would’ve been stagnant, monotonous, celibate nuns.

In the process of making our individual wishes come true, we contribute to the development of the world as a whole.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about doing good things for the society, but if you get to the root of where all of this kindness comes from, you’d realize the source of almost every human action is selfishness.

All the greatest philanthropists and altruists out there, help others not only to make their lives better, but also to validate their own goodness.

It’s inevitable. We are born alone for a reason. We have to look out for ourselves before looking out for others.

A lot of people in my life have accused me of being “insensitive” and “selfish.” Why? Because I did things to get myself out of a situation which was clearly not making me happy!

People will always make you look like the bad one, in order to camouflage their own respective sins. They do that to make themselves feel better.

The very definition of the word “selfish” has been distorted terribly over the years. Being selfish doesn’t go hand-in-hand with being this devilish antagonist, who wants to see the world go down in flames.

The flight attendants in an aircraft instruct the passengers to “secure your own oxygen mask first, and then assist the person beside you, in an emergency.”

That’s the philosophy behind the concept of selfishness, too. We are not saints or angels that revolve all of our decisions based on how it would affect those around us. Of course, if the impact is too adverse, then we shouldn’t do it. That would be inhumane.

The bottom line is that sometimes in life, we may find ourselves in situations where we may have to take an unfair decision, which would be the best thing to do for our own emotional well being and there’s nothing wrong with making that decision.

The world keeps stuffing our minds with stern, inflexible ideas based on morals and nobility, because of which, the number of people suffering in this world is rapidly increasing.

We have come into existence to be nothing but irrevocably human, accompanied by our irrational thoughts, ideas, beliefs and feelings.

Embracing this rawness of who we are is very important. There’s no need for you or me to turn into soap made up of glycerine. We can’t spend our lives cleaning others and in the process become dirty ourselves.

Like Ayn Rand said in her critically acclaimed book The Virtue of Selfishness: “The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.”