What is the most important thing to youth these days? You could argue many things, friendships, happiness.. But one of the possible answers would probably be something along the lines of “Fame” or “Social Media Statu s”. While neither of these things are inherently bad they can potentially breed one of our worst traits: Pride. What is pride? Pride itself can be good and bad, it is the feeling of accomplishment and feeling good. But this is a double edged sword, as it can also mutate into an inflated feeling of superiority and power. Pride keeps us ignorant, if we feel like we know everything, then we feel no need to learn more. Entire wars have been fought over pridefulness; you could take the crusades for example. The idea of superiority and pride of one's side's religion started a brutal conflict. This is why pride is one of the worst sins under human potential. However, as to everything in existence, there is an opposing force to pride: Humility. The antithesis of pride Humility can be described in many ways. I understand it like this: There is always more to learn from every aspect of every moment. No matter from what or whom, there is wisdom and strength to be gleaned. Consequently, this means you would have to lower your view of your own importance. You may think, “That's not right, I see all the time posters saying: Believe in yourself!” To answer that I turn to a quote from C.S Lewis, True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. This means that instead of spending so much time worrying about yourself, take the time to worry and learn from others. That way, you will improve yourself without even trying. Take Language as a basic example, you could believe that you have mastered english and there is no need for you to learn any more. Or, you could apply the speakings of different people and literature into your own lexicon. Therefore improving your understanding. We could perhaps take a more relevant example. People who think they are amazing drivers, superior drivers, tend to crash more often. While humble drivers are people who view themselves as just a driver, and that every driver makes mistakes; so they should be always cautious. There are unlimited examples of pride in our everyday life, just not enough examples of humility. That's why it's so important to practice it yourself. How to be humble It stems from realizing your own self worth. As a human, you are worth more than any amount of money, but you aren't superior or more valuable to anyone else. Same goes for ideologies, political standpoints, religions, none of these things are superior to each other. A truly humble person could learn something from each one. Back to the topic, you need to realize what you are unintentionally believing. It is commonplace in society to be told that you should be proud of yourself and to accomplish higher and higher status. While these aren't bad superficially they ride a fine line between excessive pridefulness and just being proud of yourself. In order to be humble you need to walk this fine line, I'm sure there are humble people who are proud of their accomplishments. It's just important you don't let that pride swell. Here are some steps you can follow to develop humility.
Why this is important to me
Its great to have supportive parents right? What happens when they are too supportive, you get me. For all my life my parents have been telling me that I am an incredibly great, intelligent person, destined for greatness. While praise is good, excessive praise is not. As a child, there was nowhere for this praise to go other than my ego. As a teenager, my pridefulness swelled as I believed I had superior intelligence to anyone else (which is obviously wrong). Even now, I struggle with trying to be humble. But it's important. Without humility, you are destined to push others away from you as you believe you are more and more important and superior. It's only because I realized what was going on that I managed to stop myself, and I'm glad I did. As I said before, no one is superior to anyone else in any situation. I will continue to practice Humility as I strive to be myself. *Disclaimer. I am in no way bashing my parents, I'm sure they thought they were doing what was best for my growth. *Disclaimer 2. There is another blog here about Pride, it talks about Motivation and Accomplishment, in other words. It seems that the author is simply proud of themselves, and is not a prideful person (in a bad way). Ross B
11 Comments
Caiti
1/11/2021 08:01:35 pm
I’m glad that you can admit you were once too prideful and made an effort to fix that. I’ve heard that there are more narcissistic young people in our society due to the fact that a lot of parents are telling their kids they are special, when really all have different strengths and weaknesses. Humility is an important trait and I’m happy that you’ve given us all some tips on how to be more humble.
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Riley Matthews
1/12/2021 11:18:40 am
Thank you for sharing Ross! I can see how pride and humility do fit hand in hand. I agree with your driving statement about cocky drivers. My dad thinks he's the best driver in the world but has been in a few crashes. It is not about being better than someone else. I have always been told throughout my childhood that "there will always be someone out there who is better at what you are trying to accomplish." I agree with that and that could go with anything. Unless you are given an award for being the best at something, there will always be people that are simply better than you. You made some very valid points on how you were praised as a child and I can relate. I do believe that some teenagers have big ego's these days and the points on being humble are perfect in how to be a more down to earth human. Great blog.
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Kaysey
1/12/2021 03:38:49 pm
Wow Ross that was a very informational blog and I loved reading it. I feel like especially these days, it’s hard to have pride and humility because people are so judgmental and always like to put false labels. I think its really awesome that you were aware of your “pride problem” (lol for lack of better words), and you took steps to change that. I also liked how you defined and gave examples for pride and humility and the crossing lines for each term. I feel it gave me more perspective and understanding so thanks!
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Kiana Birk
1/12/2021 07:45:02 pm
Thank you for sharing! I really appreciate your honesty and courage to share your personal experiences and journey with pridefulness. I am glad you were able to acknowledge this on your own, as it is a great learning opportunity. In addition, I like how you mentioned you will continue to practice humility and strive to be yourself. I think this points out that no matter how much one accomplishes it is important to not lose track of who we are and stay true to ourselves.
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Nevada
1/13/2021 08:42:10 am
Hey Ross! I have to say that this was a very interesting blog and I have a few comments on it. First, I loved the disclaimers at the end. Thought those were great. Second, I thought that your included “why this is important to me” was very impactful. My third and final point is that the quote you provided about humility was absolutely essential to this blog. I have actually had the opposite experience. When I was younger I was told similar things by my family, though not in such an overpowering way. The outcome for me was actually the opposite, I don’t know where I was told that I shouldn’t be too egotistical, but it severely impacted my self-confidence and my whole life I had little to no confidence because of this. I think that your quote was so important because I lived a very large portion of my life thinking of myself as less instead of thinking less of myself. Great blog! Really got me thinking!
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Madison
1/13/2021 12:46:40 pm
I agree, Humility can be a hard lesson to learn, especially with social media these days. Thinking one has more worth solely because of how many followers they have or what content they put out, can be a root of too much pride and praise. I think that having some amount of pride in yourself and your own character while still remaining humble is an amazing trait to carry. For me reminding myself that having some pride is me believing in myself when others tell you otherwise.
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Brianna
1/13/2021 01:34:38 pm
Yes, I think it’s important to have a level of pride and self confidence but there’s a line between having confidence and having a superiority complex
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Avery
1/13/2021 01:36:47 pm
I think this is a great blog topic and i in depth you went in explanation. I also enjoyed the list you added
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Devon
1/13/2021 01:39:44 pm
Thank you for sharing Ross! This topic was super interesting to me! The direct examples from daily life that create opportunities where pride may over take us was really great to show it's relevance everyday. I also enjoyed the list you included of how to humble yourself and your personal journey you are working on. Sometimes it can feel uncomfortable to admit to things you have done in the past that you aren't as proud of, but this shows vulnerability and commitment to your goal.
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Brianna
1/13/2021 01:39:54 pm
This was a really interesting blog to read. I think that often times people either feel superior and full of pride or they belittle themselves and feel inferior. Humility is a a good skill to practice because it allows you to stay humble while still having confidence in your self worth. I also believe that it is important for people to have pride in their accomplishments but to not let their pride turn into arrogance or a feeling superiority.
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Nyah Gentry
1/13/2021 01:46:53 pm
This is a fantastic blog topic. I thought you wrote it fantastically well. Pride is something that is very important for us to keep in check and I think that you did a great job touching this necessary topic
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