Check Your Pride

Last week I wrote about Confidence, but what I did not talk about was what happens when your pride gets in the way: your EGO happens. Ego is not a bad thing, it is how you look at yourself but too much of anything is bad and it can even be dangerous. When I think of an egotistical person I think of a person that is self serving, and cocky; this person has trouble seeing beyond themselves. We as human beings need to strive toward being more humble, I think this will promote a more happier and healthier world.

Before I continue it is important for me to explain what the difference between ego and pride are and how it connects to confidence. When someone is prideful they hold themselves with a certain amount of respect, this person also has respect for others. When ego gets involved with pride there is a whole new battle, it becomes emotional and sometimes even violent. The ego makes a person think they are much better than others, and they demand that others acknowledge their ego and to grovel to it. Pride and ego are directly linked to one’s success, most times people feel prideful when they have accomplished certain amount of success, but when that success goes to their head they become Egotistical. Pride is what leads up to confidence, while ego leads up to arrogance.

There have been many times where I have witnessed someone’s ego get in the way, where they talk too much and do not stop to think how their words can affect the people around them. I think it is safe to say that we all know at least one person that has been egotistical at one point or another in their lives, and chances are you know exactly what I am talking about. Whenever I encounter people like that I think to myself, “how did this person get this way? What caused them to overlook other people's feelings?” This person lacks the basic skill of empathy,what they don’t realize is that everyone is facing different battles in their life and we all will have moments when we feel prideful. What ultimately matters is HOW we make others feel about our success, will we be confident and humble about it? Or will we be arrogant and rude about it?

The trick is to not let your ego get in the way, and in order to do that is to practice humility. Humility is when you do not think you are better than others, you are humble. I think that it is great to have a perfect balance between pride and humility. You have your accomplishments and you have the right to enjoy them, but it is not ok to rub it in other peoples’ faces. Success is something that is purely your own and comparing your’s to that of others is a bad move, you get negative brownie points for that. Comparing yourself to others will make you feel bad about yourself, and the ego will kick in, your ego tries to give you validation, but to show humility is knowing that you yourself have validation, and others deserve it too. So, like I said in a past post, BE NICE.

~ Ta