Are you struggling to get rid of your pride? Do you feel like it’s holding you back from living a happy and fulfilling life? If so, don’t worry – you’re not alone. In this post, we’ll discuss what pride is, why it’s important to get rid of it, and how to go about doing that. Let’s get started!
Understand the Meaning of Pride
The first step to getting rid of pride is to understand what it means.
Pride can be described as follows:
- A feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or qualities or possessions that are widely admired.
- A sense of one’s own dignity or worth; self-respect.
- An excessively high opinion of oneself; conceit. This is the problem one!
See Pride as an Obstacle
The easiest way to overcome pride is to see it for what it’s: an obstacle to progress. Pride is the opposite of humility. Humility, on the other hand, is a virtue that makes us better people and gives us the ability to deal more effectively with others.
Pride not only creates obstacles between you and others but also between you and your true self. Pride can interfere with your ability to develop in a healthy way. If you constantly play with the idea of being superior to others, or if you refuse to accept your limitations or flaws, you aren’t left with much room for positive personal growth.
You may not be willing or able to learn new things or have new experiences. This can affect your education, career prospects, and creative expression, as well as your daily self-care – how well you eat, sleep, and exercise can be affected by an unhealthy dose of pride.
Pride can also affect interpersonal relationships. It’s hard enough to form close relationships with other people without your pride constantly getting in the way. If even one person has too much pride (or both), communication suffers; because each person thinks they know best about most things that come up in a conversation, no one will listen particularly attentively or respectfully.
This can also lead to conflict, where neither party wants to admit they were wrong about something, so it never gets resolved. Don’t be that prideful person!
If a relationship goes on like this long enough, it can eventually break down altogether due to lack of communication – but if one party’s pride gets the better of them, they can end things before it gets that far! Either way, if the two parties involved had been humble instead of proud throughout their relationship, they probably would have had a much better outcome than they did.
Pride Is an Obstacle to Your Own Happiness and to the Well-being of Those Around You
- Pride is an obstacle to your own happiness and to the welfare of those around you.
- Pride is an obstacle to your success, both spiritually and in the physical world.
- Selfishness is the cause, but pride itself is destructive to relationships and character.
Be Aware of the Consequences of Your Pride
This may seem obvious, but it’s worth thinking about the consequences of too much pride. Most proud people have had problems in a relationship at one time or another, whether it’s with a friend, a family member, or a colleague.
Pride is often to blame – when you’re too proud to admit mistakes, trust drops and you don’t feel truly connected to others.
It’s also not uncommon to experience health problems caused by stress and anxiety. If you’re too proud to let go of past mistakes, it can lead to feelings of guilt and regret, which can manifest in physical ailments.
Finally, pride can affect your performance at work, in sports, or in other activities. Even the best athletes make mistakes sometimes – if you focus on your successes and learn from your failures instead of dwelling on them, you’ll be able to perform better next time! But this does not mean inflated pride!
Self-assessment
Self-assessment is about identifying your skills, strengths, and weaknesses in order to improve them. Self-assessment can include the following:
- taking a personality test
- conducting a SWOT (strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats) analysis
- look at your past achievements
- Set goals for yourself
Admit When Your Pride Gets in the Way
First, be honest with yourself. You cannot be humble if you aren’t aware of your faults and mistakes. Humble people are quick to admit their mistakes and don’t hide their pride even when it gets in the way.
Second, you must be prepared to deal with the consequences of your pride. The consequences of pride are always negative. So if you don’t take the time to find out what the consequences are, you’ll have no motivation to rid yourself of it.
And finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help to get rid of your pride!
Start With a Small Step Towards Humility
- Don’t try to change too much too fast – getting rid of pride is a big task. If you break it down into smaller steps, you can reach your goal more easily.
- Don’t be afraid to start small – sometimes just asking for help with the dishes is a good first step.
- Don’t be too proud to admit your mistakes – if you make a mistake, admit it and move on.
- Don’t be too hard on yourself – we all have our weaknesses and it’s important not to get discouraged.
Recognize the Benefits of Humility
There are many benefits to being humble.
Related: Benefits of Being Humble. Being humble doesn’t mean you think less of yourself, but it does mean you know you can always improve.
If you’re humble, people will:
- Find you more approachable and likable
- See you as someone who’s open to new things
- The sense that you have a high level of empathy for others
- Observe that you’re at peace with yourself and the world around you
- Feel drawn to your spiritual side
- Notice your compassionate nature
- Be impressed with how forgiving you can be
- Appreciate your openness to criticism and self-improvement
Embrace Humility
Ask yourself what you need in life. Most people will say things like a happy family, a great job, and the respect of others. These are all good things to want and can make life sweeter. But don’t let them become all-encompassing goals that cause you to look down on those who don’t have those things.
If you always try to be “ahead of everyone else,” it can be easy to get carried away and become prideful.
Know your limitations. A lot of pride comes from thinking, “I can do anything I set my mind to.” That’s a positive attitude, but it can go too far when people forget that they aren’t all-knowing or all-powerful. Recognize that there are things you can’t control or influence, accept them, and move on without regret.
Be humble about your accomplishments. Whether you got promoted at work or won the spelling bee at school, take time to celebrate your successes without exaggerating how great you’re (or how mediocre everyone else is).
Evaluate Your Tendencies
Take a moment to reflect on your own behavior and ask yourself where you’re on the spectrum of pride. Be self-aware and try to be as honest with yourself as possible. Look at your strengths and weaknesses and figure out which ones are causing problems in your life.
- Have you taken a step toward vanity?
- Are you self-centered?
- Consciously identify the traits that are most problematic and then focus on correcting them. Observe your thoughts and actions:
- What about you makes you proud?
- What triggers arrogance in others around you?
- Ask a trusted friend or family member for their opinion; feedback from outsiders can help keep things real.
Consider Your Gifts, Successes, and Possessions
We’re not self-made. None of us was born in a vacuum and ran away as soon as we came into the world. We were born to our mothers and cared for by our fathers, grandparents, siblings, friends and teachers.
Most of us live in a society where there’s at least some level of education through which we can learn from others. Most of us have access to running water, electricity, gas or electric stoves on which to cook our food, televisions to entertain us or keep us company after work … the list could go on and on! You see where we’re going with this: You aren’t a self-made man/woman, because there are no self-made men/women; it takes a whole village to raise a child (as they say).
Recognize where your gifts come from, and recognize that everything that’s good comes not just from you.
Ask for Help When You Need It
- Think about what’s important to you in your life – your family and friends, your career goals, or your hobbies. Then think about how not asking for help might affect those things. This will help you understand why it’s important to get help from others when you need it.
- Make a list of reasons why you’d want to ask someone for help. Reading this list will motivate you when you feel nervous or afraid to reach out.
- Make a list of possible solutions; knowing what kind of solutions will work best is an effective strategy before asking someone for advice or support.
Get Rid of Pride in Your Leadership
If you’re in a leadership position, it’s important to work on overcoming your pride. A humble leader is more respected and trusted by their followers, and the effects of pride can be very damaging in your role as a leader.
You can recognize prideful leaders by the following behaviors:
- They care only about their own image and reputation
- They reject the help or advice of others
- They’ve no compassion for people who don’t share the same beliefs
- They belittle the successes of others to make themselves feel better
- They don’t admit when they make mistakes
To improve your management skills, you should resolve to learn humility. This involves self-awareness, which isn’t always easy. You may need help from others – so don’t be afraid to ask for it!
Consult a Mental Health Professional
If you’re unable to make the changes you want on your own, or if you think your pride is causing significant problems in your life, you should get help from a professional. A mental health professional can help you understand how your pride is affecting your life and how you can reduce it.
Finding the right therapist may take some time. If possible, get a referral from someone whose opinion you trust. Otherwise, ask someone in your community who works as a therapist for recommendations or look at online therapist listings.
There are a few things to consider when choosing potential therapists:
- Qualifications (education and licensure),
- areas of expertise,
- and experience working with clients like you.
You should also consider the type of therapy (cognitive behavioral therapy, systemic family therapy, etc.), availability and willingness to give you what you need, location, and fees (if any).
Most importantly, trust your gut – does he or she seem like someone you’d feel comfortable with?
If you feel that excessive pride is a problem for you or that you’re not exactly humble, you can take steps to get to know yourself better, learn to be more open with others, and cultivate humility in your life.
Take Steps
If you feel that excessive pride is a problem for you or that you aren’t humble enough, you can take steps to get to know yourself better, be more open with others, and cultivate humility in your life.
- List your strengths and weaknesses. Be sure to write both positive and negative qualities on your list. Arrange the items on this list so that the one that’s most important to you comes first. If possible, ask a trusted friend or family member who knows you well to help you make this list.
- Accept yourself as you’re now. This means not only accepting the good parts of you but also being honest about all aspects of your personality, including those you don’t like so much. Everyone has good and bad qualities; no one is perfect!
- Think about what other people might see in you if they were as honest with themselves as you’ve been with yourself, especially if they have a very different view of themselves than you do (for example, someone who thinks they’re perfect). Try not to judge others too harshly for their own imperfections!
Ask Yourself These Questions
Humility is the most important thing you can have if you want to succeed in business. If your goal is to get ahead, staying humble will help you achieve it. So how do we know if we need to work on being more humble?
Ask yourself these questions:
- Are you the smartest person in the room?
- Do you always have to be right?
- Do you tend to think more highly of yourself than you should?
- Do you tend to think less of yourself than you should?
- Do you call yourself a proud person?
Determine the Benefits
Determine the benefits. If you’re still resisting letting go of your pride, take a moment to think about the benefits of banishing it from your life.
Pride is an obstacle to long-lasting happiness and full success. It can destroy relationships, deny you fulfillment, and prevent you from reaching your potential. It’s not worth it!
Ask yourself this question: Would you rather be proud or happy?
Appreciate Others
Put yourself in the shoes of others and look at things from their perspective. Don’t think that you’re greater than they’re, that your opinion is always better, or that you always know best. Keep in mind that other people have a lot to offer as well.
Appreciate their contributions and feelings as well as their accomplishments, time and effort. Value their company and friendship. Listen to what they’ve to say before you give your opinion about something. Give them a chance to prove themselves or express their opinions before you badmouth them.
You may find how much more you can learn from them about certain topics just by listening to them once, or that they may even have a better idea than you do because they see things differently.*
Embrace Failure
Everyone makes mistakes and fails, regardless of their station in life. Everyone is fallible, regardless of their position in life.
Own your mistakes, learn from them, and move on. Some of the most successful people in the world failed spectacularly before they succeeded later in life:
Walt Disney: The founder of the Walt Disney Co. was fired by a newspaper editor for not being creative enough – on the grounds that he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” His company went bankrupt several times before he built it into a multi-billion dollar enterprise with theme parks around the world.
Thomas Edison: In his early years as an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts to invent the light bulb. When asked why he failed to perfect his invention, he replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. I successfully discovered 1,000 ways to make NOT a light bulb.”
Learn Healthy Self-confidence
Self-confidence is good, but pride is a problem. Some people are very confident and act that way without being proud. You can be kind and respectful. You don’t have to belittle others or talk too much about yourself. If you treat others as equals, your self-confidence won’t turn into pride:
- Give equal attention to the opinions of others.
- Be open to learning from others.
- Don’t interrupt others when they’re talking so you can talk about yourself!
Healthy self-confidence has nothing to do with believing that you’re better than other people. Unhealthy self-confidence includes things like believing that you’re always right, feeling superior to others, and thinking that the world revolves around you. This is actually pride, which isn’t good for anyone- especially you!
Pay Attention to How Your Ego Affects Others
If you’ve always had a big ego but didn’t realize it, try noticing how others react to you.
- Do they shut down when you start something?
- Do they seem uncomfortable?
Take some time to observe how those around you react to your behavior and what conclusions you can draw. You may find that your pride has a negative effect on them and makes them unhappy or uncomfortable.
Stay Humble
The best way to get rid of pride is to stay humble. Humility and pride are opposites. Humility means you have a high opinion of yourself, while pride is the opposite: you think you’re better than you really are.
To stay humble, you just have to keep in mind that no one knows everything (including you) and that you still have a lot of work to do before you become the person you want to be.
To stay humble:
- Don’t brag or talk too much about yourself. Instead, try to learn more about your friends and colleagues by asking questions that show their interest in you.
- Don’t think too highly of yourself; there’s always room for improvement! No one is perfect. You make mistakes just like everyone else. You can learn from those mistakes and focus on becoming a better person every day.
- Don’t be arrogant or badmouth others for their perceived shortcomings when someone makes a mistake at work or school, rather than encouraging them to feel good about themselves again because kindness helps build trusting relationships that last into adulthood…
YOu Can Overcome a Proud Heart by Starting With Humility and Self-knowledge
It can be difficult to broach the subject of humility.
But if you’re ready, here’s how to get started:
- Be humble.
- Stay humble.
- Avoid situations that make you proud or arrogant.
- Don’t flatter yourself too much and don’t talk about yourself too much. In this way, people won’t resent your arrogance and will think less of you.
- Don’t brag about your skills or accomplishments too often, especially to people who aren’t as knowledgeable as you’re. Also, don’t brag about it on social media where everyone can see it! That’s just rude and makes people think even less of you than they already would have before they read your posts!