SUCCESS MUST BESTOW HUMILITY There is a popular saying that goes- “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”. In order to relate to this rule, one of the most important needs is that of ‘humility’. Humility is a high virtue of human beings. Unfortunately this affirmation is not accepted by everybody. Somehow this virtue is ignored, or it was not paid much attention to it. At the very core of a humble person is an inner strength powered by high self-esteem. Someone who has a true sense of self has no need to feel insecure.
Insecurities lead to self-centeredness, arrogance, feelings of superiority, and boastfulness. When one has low self-esteem the need to feel important by others is exaggerated. This high need prompts the individual to brag, or act in arrogant ways or even tells half-truths to fill that need. When self-esteem is high, the need to feel important by those around is replaced by the self-importance that is felt within. This self-importance that is experienced creates a strong feeling of security, which generates that inner, unspoken confidence. That quiet confidence translates into humility.
A secure, accurate sense of self has no room for selfish pride. Feeling pride in our achievements and that of our family’s is not what I refer to. It’s great to feel proud and to give positive reinforcement to self or loved ones for a job well done. However, when that same pride is used to make comparisons with others so they feel put down shows very little modesty and very little humility. It is important to realize how a strong sense of self can change our entire outlook in so many areas of our lives, especially in the area of humbleness. Humility is a very attractive quality.
It means staying confident and poised while putting away arrogance and boastfulness as we achieve our goals. When the humble person accomplishes bigger career opportunities and more wealth, they can still maintain a modest attitude and not see themselves as superior to others. In the contemporary world, humility is seen unfortunately as a weakness, and not as a virtue. Why humility is seen like this? It is because the world in which we are living is a world of competition. Everybody is in competition for the best place. In every domain is a competition.
For example in politic, they are in competition for who to lead the country, in economy for who to have the most develop business, even in culture & arts is a competition for who to be the best artist and so on. “Humility and knowledge in poor clothes excel pride and ignorance in costly attire” quoted by William Penn. Throughout our lives, we all work in order to someday have a job, family and ultimately be successful in life. But what truly defines the meaning of success? One meaning of success is the favourable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavours (dictionary. com).
Although one can be successful by accomplishing his or her goals, true success is attained when one can bring about achievement and prosperity in others as well. In today’s society, we see too many people consumed by idea of success that they single themselves out from the rest of the world. Too many of us view others as a potential barrier to their path to success. In today’s world, this selfish environment can be seen in both school and sports. It certainly resonates with my own experience and observation: to get better and better at something, one needs to be one’s own toughest critic — fair, but always honest, humble and tough.
You don’t want to be demoralizing, needlessly tearing at the fabric of your self-esteem, but at every turn, you do want to be saying: “Well, that’s not quite good enough — I can do better. ” In fact, it seems to me that you want to attach self-esteem to the process of becoming better, instead of letting it become attached to any static result. That way, you can be critical of a performance and not become demoralized about what it says about you as a person. The self-criticism actually becomes a self-esteem booster because you feel good about doing the hard work to constantly improve.
