There is Bad Selfishness and There is Good Selfishness

Pardon me but I had to check the meaning of selfishness and this is what I got;

"Selfishness is the excessive concern for one's own welfare, interests, or advantage, typically disregarding the needs, feelings, or rights of others. It involves prioritizing self-interest over the well-being of others. Selfishness is often distinguished from a "genuine sense of self" and is frequently viewed as a lack of empathy."

This can be termed bad selfishness because it is centered more on just one person and only one person is benefiting, which of course is wrong, no matter our role, no matter our position, no matter our level, no matter who we are or where we are, we are no expected to think only about ourselves, while I understand that we humans can take a person's simplicity for granted, I also understand that there is room for looking out for others while making plans of our own, there is need for adjusting to fit others, there is need for thinking about others and how the decisions we are making or about to make will affect them.

You know that in today's world people have taken the "Be selfish of yourself" to mean not having empathy, not thinking about others, not being concerned about others' well-being, not adjusting to fit others and that is where selfishness becomes evil. While we encourage people to be selfish, that is not what we expect from them but then, humans will always be humans.

Yes! There is something called "good selfishness. Good selfishness has to do with self-care, setting boundaries, self-respect, self-improvement, and growth. Good selfishness has to do with looking out for oneself, while still looking out for others, loving yourself while still loving others, thinking about oneself while still thinking about others, improving on oneself while still helping improving on other, giving grace to oneself while giving grace to others, forgiving oneself while forgiving others, it ensures personal well-being on oneself so one can function better, more like first putting on your own oxygen mask to maximize your ability to help other, rather than harming others to get ahead.

So, when people say "Be selfish or Be selfish about yourself" that is what they mean and when one talks about being selfish to be good, it should entail the above but since we are humans, we have the privilege of choice, so we most times choose what works for us but affects us because "We are humans".

As much as someone would come out to say selfishness is selfishness and it is bad, but we fail to remember, " Be selfish about yourself" which isn't always a bad advice because it means, while you are out there being selfless, know that we have bad people, who enjoy doing bad, who enjoy tarnishing the image of others who enjoy hurting others, who enjoy watching people beg and gravel on their knees for them, who are not empathetic, who because they see you are selfless and kind, would consciously want to take you for granted, protect yourself, while helping others help yourself, while loving others, love yourself, respect yourself, look out for yourself, for your health, for your mental health, treat yourself kind as you treat others kind.

This is my entry to @hive-reachout/hivereachout-weekly-prompt-95positive-selfishness-hii" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hive-Reachout Weekly Prompt 95>>"‎‎‎Positive Selfishness" join us to share your thoughts.

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There is Bad Selfishness and There is Good Selfishness

@nwaadiaha

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