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user-inactivated  ·  3443 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How do you find a balance between thinking for yourself and thinking of others first?

When I was younger, despite how much I tried to be nice to people, and was generally a good person, I eventually noticed a pattern in which I flitted through relationships. From time to time, people would be generous toward me, help me out, be stellar good people that I'll remember forever. But I rarely did the same. A few years ago, I did closer thinking on this, and realized it was still happening: I was mostly on the receiving end of help, but rarely helped others in the same way. I had valid reasons for doing so (was a transient wanderer for much of my life), but I didn't want to be like that anymore, and eventually realized that the thing preventing me from helping others as they've helped me was stability. I then did a lot of work on training myself to have a more stable life, and I notice now I'm much more appreciative of other people, I have healthier relationships, and communicate more positively.