Humility and Its Importance in Society

Humility is the path to take. First thing’s first, what is humility? According to Merriam-Webster, humility is the quality of being humble, not proud, and believes that they are not better than others. Humility can have 3 qualities, patience, silence, and being merciful. Patience and humility are closely related because even though we like to answer back or brag back to someone that is proud and arrogant, but we decided not to do so. With that said, having this realization requires a lot of self-discipline and patience. Additionally, a humble person is patient because he/she does not put his/her perception of ability before those of others, therefore believing that he/she is not better than others. As for silence, DeShanne Stokes ones said “If your actions don't live up to your words, you have nothing to say.” In short, actions speak louder than words. Before you open your mouth, have a time to reflect if what you’ll about to say will benefit others or just make things worse. On the other hand, pride which is the opposite of humility, is the feeling of deep satisfaction in one’s own achievement or accomplishment. Bonaventure once said “Anyone who relies on philosophical knowledge and values himself highly because of it and believes himself to be better because of it, has become a fool. This happens when he believes that, through this knowledge, he has grasped the Creator without any further light. It is as if a man wanted to see heaven or the sun by means of candles.” So, with all of that, why do we need to be humble or have humility?

Humility encourages self-reflection. For example, leaders in general should have humility to be able to reflect by himself/herself to succeed. As Robert L. Rosen once said “Self-reflection entails asking yourself questions about your values, assessing your strengths and failures, thinking about your perceptions and interactions with others, and imagining where you want to take your life in the future.” Self-reflection also comes with self-actualization. According to Maslow, self-actualization is when you fulfill your maximum potential and be the best version of yourself. It’s all about the acceptance of who you are and what you are capable of. From Maslow’s book of Motivation and Personality, one of the characteristics of self-actualized people are being humble. He said 'They are all quite well aware of how little they know in comparison with what could be known and what is known by others. Because of this it is possible for them without pose to be honestly respectful and even humble before people who can teach them something”. Having to reflect on your own and to achieve self-actualization can lead to success. Success is vital in life. Humility can lead you to success, for example, an entrepreneur must have humility to take on the responsibility of handling the company and also to lead an effective organization that is aware from the challenges of reality.

However, we must also consider that there is also a good side in pride. Pride is like cholesterol, there’s the good one and the bad one. The positive meaning in Merriam-Webster is “A feeling that you respect yourself and deserve to be respected by others.” One example is when you work hard to achieve your goals and dreams and also when you set or maintain a certain standard for yourself. But then there’s the bad side of pride. It is when people think highly of themselves, think that they are more superior than others and tends to look down on others. Good pride is expressed or conveyed in an implicit manner or an indirect manner. On the contrary, bad pride is way more aggressive and explicitly expressed and conveyed. Such as superiority against others, the act of looking down on others and being defensive that he/she can’t accept if he/she is wrong about something. Pride is often driven by shame and lack of self-worth. We feel ashamed about ourselves that we treat other people back by feeling superior. We criticize others instead of recognizing our own flaws. When pride takes over, we believe that we’re always right.

Personally, I choose to be humble because for me humility is a sign of strength, not weakness. I have peace with myself and modest with my achievements and the things I have. For me, I have nothing no prove to others. I’m here on Earth comfortable in my own skin, quietly proud, and tries to focus on giving and listening to others instead of taking and talking about myself. Refrain from being the “know-it-all” person to a person that’s willing to learn so much more in life. Another thing is for me, flexing to someone might lead them to think badly of me or have stereotypes which I try my best to stay away from.

Humility begins by accepting who you are and what you are. With that, you gain control of yourself and your outlook in life. There’s no ego, no self-deception, and certainly no disrespect. The realization that you don’t know everything and the fact that you can and will make mistakes leads to an understanding that we are all in the same place. As Carl said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”