be less selfish

I have kept this at the front of my mind for a couple of months now. After a heart to heart with my husband, I have been putting forth effort to “build people up” and compliment them for things that would normally go unnoticed. I’m now employed as a school psychologist, where my entire career is helping out the less fortunate. While I am certain that I will occasionally have selfish moments (we all do), and I am aware that this is one goal that is technically never complete, in comparison to where I was at the beginning of the year, I feel that I have made sufficient progress to cross this goal off the list.

As I become more aware of my interactions with other people, I have noticed that I tend to steal the spotlight. This may not fall under the traditional definition of selfish, but it is kind of selfish to always be the center of attention. I am now making a conscious effort to hold myself back.

Yesterday, there was a end-of-the-school-year picnic and my first grade teacher happened to be retiring. So much did I want to jump up, take the microphone, and talk about how she was my first grade teacher and now I have two master’s degrees. Looking at it in writing now, makes me realize how completely inappropriate that would have been. I held myself back, and after the picnic, I thanked the teacher privately. In the end, thanking the teacher privately was so much more personal, and she really appreciated it.

I don’t like to think of myself as selfish; however, observing the selfishness of others has really caused me to sit back and reflect. I am going to make it a conscious effort to not be selfish and to think of other people first. Hopefully I will become a better person because of it.