[Ceros]

It seems that I only approach the people around me when I 'need' something from them and completely ignore their existence or needs when I don't.

When I say 'need' I don't necessarily mean in the way that "can I borrow your car?", but say I'm feeling bored and lonely - I'll call up a friend and go out with him, but so long as I'm feeling happy by myself it's as if that friend doesn't even exist - most of the time I won't even bother with his phone calls / e-mails. (Mind you I'm using the word "friend" loosely - I don't really have any real friends when it comes to that)

This sort of behavior isn't limited to friends only - My current employment is through an agency which gives me temporary assignments within different organisations. And whenever they give me an assignment that I don't feel like doing instead of politely refusing it or warning them that I'll be busy on that day in advance, I just ignore them altogether until they find someone else for it.

And until recently I never realized that my actions damaged anyone - I simply never deemed it necessary to consider their point of view.

So I guess my question is: how do I become more aware of the needs of others? How can I learn what their expectations for me are, and then not dismiss this knowledge a few moments later?