I recently was walking down the street and a feeble-looking man was asking for money. At first I walked by. I couldn’t get him off my mind, however, so I turned around and handed him a ten dollar bill.

A few minutes later, a well-put-together man walked up to me and said: “You know you are just enabling him. Giving him money will not help him out in life.”

I thought about it for a while. And he was probably right. What I did was not going to lead him to self-sufficiency. It may in-fact lead to more of the same behavior.

But . . . . I did not give the money for him.

I gave it for me.

At the end of life, on my deathbed, I’m pretty sure I will be more satisfied to have been a giver rather than a non-enabler.

Life provides us with the power – through our decisions and actions – to create ourselves. It provides us with little, if any, power to create others.

Ultimately, life is about selfishness – the creation of ourselves.

Cut the Crap: We are empowered to create others.

Bring in the Change: We are empowered to create ourselves.

Timothy Velner is a husband, father, attorney and author living in Minneapolis. You can follow his daily blog – a series of discussions between the worry-self and the present-self – at: thespiritualgym.me