I try my best to be nice at all times but assertiveness - or lack of it - has sometimes backfired it. My bluntness has caused problems too being on ocassion misinterpreted as being mean. In an effort to encourage people to see the reality of or additional sides of a situation my efforts to contructively criticize results in grief. I try my best to be kind about it but my doing so as I've said backfires.

Still, I consider myself nice. I am one of those people who says hello and offers assistance to strangers. I have intervened when I see people being taken advantage of or targeted for being different. I am the type to take the burnt pancake or smallest item.

Worth noting is, I find it far easier to be nice to someone else than myself.

I want to add to the list of self-serving reasons:

being nice only for the expectation of something in return