Healthy Selfishness: How to Create Favorable Conditions for Success
Accept your right to exist. The one sperm cell and the one egg cell that came together to form you was no accident. The egg literally chooses the one sperm cell from the millions that try to fertilize her, allows him to penetrate her outer shell, and then, with the proper environment, they grow together to become you. It may be risky, but it is not accidental.
Let go of others' expectations. You can't live up to them, no matter how hard you try. Besides, their expectations will probably change. Set your own expectations and live up to them. If you make a mistake, accept it and move on. "The person who doesn't' make mistakes is unlikely to make anything." Paul Arden
Love yourself, your possibilities, your potential. You are mostly unused potential. No matter how long you live, you will not run out of potential. Even those in mental institutions are still serving a purpose.
Choose joy. You have the option. You can close yourself off from joy, but it is still your call.
Accept yourself without pretense. The reality is, you are amazing, warts and all. The less you accept yourself as you are, the more you hold back from the rest of us. And we need your gifts, talents, and abilities. With a few exceptions, we all want you to succeed.
Give away what you know. Don't worry that someone will "one up" you. What you give-time, talent, dollars, knowledge, information-always returns to you, as St. Paul says, ". . .full measure, pressed down, and running over." As someone else once said, "You cannot outgive the universe." I agree.
Practice compassion, which, in its simplest definition means "Do no harm, help where you can." It may sound simplistic, even cool, but it is truly the bedrock of a civilized culture, of a civilized person. You don't have to profess any particular religion or philosophy to practice compassion. Again, like with the point above, compassion will return to you manyfold.
Ultimately, all of the above points, as valuable as they are to the world, are self-serving. And that's OK. The healthier you are mentally, intellectually, physically, socially, and spiritually, the more you can offer the world. When your personal and professional successes are based on these kinds of principles rather than greed or fear, you add an energy to the world that can be found nowhere else. I know you've heard it before,
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