Self-centredness and purposes

Many people boast about avoiding self-centredness. They often accuse other people that they always tend to ask themselves before they make any decisions, to do or not to do, to go or not to go, questions such as "What's in it for me?" "How does it benefit me?" "What's its purpose for me?".

However, i am skeptic with this view. If there is no purpose for ourselves in doing something, really, why do we bother doing it anyway? Well, you may argue that it is not for ourselves but for the well being of others. To some extent, however, we became satisfied with our actions, and happy about it, am i rite? Many people, in fact, just to satisfy their own happiness, ready to give much of what they have and donate it to poor people, so that people may look good before them, so that they can be satisfied and people praise them and they became famous and known to be generous. Here actually, self-centredness is included. Next, what about a missionary, that is ready to leave everything to spread gospel, risking their own lives? At hindsight, they seem that they do not benefit in anything. But still, they do have a personal purpose for them doing so, that is to do what is according to their own vision! And that is accomplished via missionary! Now is that self-centred? The gray area arises when there is a synchronization between our interests and things that are considered as good. Now, if someone goes to church, and is based on the motivation of being entertained, that is self-centred! What if he doesnt like gospel but he came to hear gospel? Obviously that is not self centred!But of course we should identify why he goes to church! But what if he likes gospel and he came to church to hear gospel? On one hand, one has a duty, while on the other hand, he likes his duty! How to resolve this case?

Here, i'm thinking that multiple interests may come into picture. If we do something, it is not based just on just one purpose! It might be many! Therefore, i am skeptic to those people who ask "What is your purpose in doing this?" "What's your motive in doing this?" We are not robots however, that we always do things on one singular purpose. It's not that simple, and we are not, like programs, do a search until a particular purpose is identified before we do something! Some things we do often don't have a well-defined purpose! Take an everyday example, suppose you are not that thirsty, and you happen to take a glass of water and drink it, while in the fridge there are many other sorts of beverages. Well, why do you drink mineral water and not those other drinks? Well, i doubt that before we drink we always ask ourselves "What should i drink and why?" That would be ridiculous! Sometimes we just do things without questioning, and it would be funny to ask "what is your motivation to drink? to choose a particular cup and not the others? and to drink mineral water and not other drinks?"

Next, it would also be ridiculous to say "I found no purpose in this and so i won't do it" and after that we just laze all the way doing nothing! If that something that we don't do, have, say, a certain amount of benefit, let's assume it to be small, and we don't do it, we should have utilise that time for something of more importance! Something more beneficial! That way the excuse becomes meaningful! Well, it's also ridiculous if someone says that he dont have enough time, or don't wanna waste his time while on other occasions we found him wasting his time doing nothing that is meaningful at all!

To sum up : We are people with uncertainties, unclear purposes and inconsistencies!