Are you Selfish?

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I know I am selfish. I try not to be and i dont want to be. Often i look back at events or words and say "wow, that was really selfish of you." I recognized i was selfish in HS when a girl told me so. Now at 25 i feel i still am but most of the times its a heat of the moment thing (often i wish i could change my decision afterwards). Just curious if this is a common trait among us. Obviously sometimes you HAVE to be selfish but overall do you consider yourself to be selfish?

I argue this over with myself sometimes.... I'm not one of the cynics who thinks that there is no such thing as altruism and that everyone is selfish if you tear at it enough, but nonetheless, I question my own motives. Did I help someone because I thought it would make them happy, or because I wanted to feel like I was good for something? Is enjoying someone's happiness, or finding someone's sadness unbearable to watch, enough to make one's motivations selfish? I've been called selfish before too. I choose not to believe as much usually, because I know that I've done things where there was no apparent incentive for me, and in some cases quite probable loss, for others or for something I thought was right. Maybe by some measure people could still find selfish motives in my actions if they felt so inclined, but when I think back, I know I wasn't imagining personal gain as the outcome.

Also, it's easier to call someone selfish if you think of their needs as wants instead. If you believe someone's problems with texture in foods is a CHOICE, it's quite easy to say that they're selfish for not wanting to go to a restaurant where they can find nothing on the menu. Likewise, it's convenient to say someone right next to you who has problems with the noise you're making thinks "it's their space" and that "the world revolves around them," rather than maybe considering that it really does hurt and lowering the volume a little bit. I would say that a lot of the times, my perceived "selfishness" was me either not wanting to put myself in an uncomfortable situation or not remain in one, usually for sensory or social reasons. Once in a while, I've just been a bastard, but more times than I can count it was some misunderstanding or another that got me stuck with such a label.

It depends on the object. If someone on a forum of something asks for help or a file and I have it-I'll upload it/help them with their problem if I can or provide info on where to help/etc. I also seed a lot for a while on any torrents I d/l. lol @ ratio of 1:40 (ratio of upload/downloads).

If I'm hungry as hell and they're asking for food Im eating, not so much... Sometimes I might share some anyway. Depends. Same for homeless on the street, I try to avoid that. thankfully I don't go downtown a lot so that's not a problem. still give some change occasionally..

Well it depende