Humility – Regulating Mind Inflation

Humility allows you to be completely honest with yourself. Humility is accepting the flaws and challenges that are vital to your success. When you push your ego to the side, you learn that the big picture is not about you. Humility prevents the mind from inflating with selfish and arrogant perceptions of ourselves.

Humility in Your Life

Humility can change the environment around you. When you are not constantly pushing your own agenda, praising yourself, or parading your own arrogance, you allow your mind to be more accepting and welcoming of the truth. How does humility play into your daily life?
• Do you apologize first?
• Do you allow your coworkers to accept praises on a project you completed together?
• Do you ask yourself how you can be of service to someone instead of telling them what they need?
• Are you open to other viewpoints and suggestions?
• Do you accept failure and utilize it as a teaching tool?
• How often do you say “thank you”?
• Do you flaunt your success, or do you thank the people and the struggles that helped you achieve it?
• Would you mop the floor, even though it is not your job?

Ground Yourself

It’s important to keep yourself grounded. When you remain grounded, your family trusts you, your employer counts on you, and your friends look to you for support. If you walk around with an overinflated ego and an overwhelming sense of entitlement, no one will want to be around you or work with you on any tasks. It’s important to take yourself out of the self-portrait you have created, and look at yourself and everyone else as a whole. Bragging about your accomplishments and your self-discovered keys to success will only hinder your growth. Success rarely comes without sacrifice and support from the people around you.

A Humbling Experience will Transform Your Life

You can’t deny the experiences that have made you who you are. It’s the small moments of defeat and unflattering revelations about us that create humility. But, without accepting their existence, we allow our egos to get in the way of the truth. Put yourself in a situation of inferiority. Be mindful of how your body reacts to the situation, and listen to the words you express as a result. Your humility, or lack of, will emerge. What was your result?

Don’t Confuse Humility with Weakness

Don’t think that when you allow yourself to express humility, then you are being weak. On the contrary, humility is an act of courage and takes a special kind of strength. Not many people use this strength. It takes strength to admit your flaws, to admit failure, and to admit that you do not know or cannot do something. Having someone on your side, who understands your struggles and accepts you for who you are can be the support you need to overcome personal hindrances.

Finally, one way to start developing your humility is to carry out a 360 degree feedback exercise. When you look at the differences between how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you, ask questions. Be open to listening to what others have to say. Take feedback, especially that which you do not agree with and that triggers defensiveness in you. Ask yourself what you can do to decrease the gaps, what you can do to develop in the areas pinpointed, and how you can approach the whole process with humility, with openness, and with a willingness to listen and learn. Be open to learning even from those with less status or experience than you. Be open to change. That is the road to humility, a tough but extremely fulfilling one, leading to wisdom…

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