Melody Larson

The Art of Living Selfishly

If you want to make a difference in this world, live with passion, and fulfill your purpose for being on this planet you must be willing to take responsibility for your life and stop living as a slave to your ‘shoulds.’ To do this, you have to do something that at first seems to go against everything we’ve been taught in our society: you have to become selfish. I’m talking deeply, gloriously, unswervingly, deliciously selfish.

If you want to make a difference in this world, live with passion, and fulfill your purpose for being on this planet you must be willing to take responsibility for your life and stop living as a slave to your ‘shoulds.’ To do this, you have to do something that at first seems to go against everything we’ve been taught in our society: you have to become selfish. I’m talking deeply, gloriously, unswervingly, deliciously selfish. Through selfishness, you are able to give more of your Self, to shower others with your highest energy and your highest love. You have to put your own needs and desires above everyone and everything precisely in order to serve everyone and everything.

In this sense selfishness is constructive rather than destructive.  I’m not talking about destructive selfishness. Destructive selfishness is to seek ruthless ego satisfaction at the expense of others, or self-indulgence at the expense of your own integrity, or tired sacrifice and martyrdom in the name of selflessness but that is rooted firmly in the selfish control of others. None of these things are constructive selfishness. They are greed. Greed is always destructive. Constructive selfishness is about being yourself so fully that you can share yourself fully and beautifully with the world.

Without selfishness, you will always put the needs, wants, and dictates of the outside world above your own. This keeps you unempowered. You sacrifice your Soul’s desires in order to feed the desires of your personality, which is never able to free itself from outside influence. Remaining unempowered in this way is the ultimate in destructive selfishness: by not fulfilling your purpose you withhold the gifts that you are here to share with this world. You are here to uplift humanity in your own unique way! You are also here to learn. You will achieve neither unless you embrace the Self within you, which is what selfishness really means. When you dance with the Self joy becomes the primary rhythm of your life.

Selfishness paves the way to serving others in the best way possible: by showing up in the world as who you really are and by fully, exuberantly contributing your unique passions, gifts, joys, and talents to that world. When you delight the world with your presence, you automatically and effortlessly delight in your own life too.

(Excerpted from the book, Delighting the Soul: Lessons on Life Purpose, Authenticity, and the Law of Attraction)

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