Often times, humility is seen as the state of mind wherein one remains humble through a sense of detachment from importance. It is taken as the opposite of a prideful or overconfident sense of being and represents how people should live, especially those in higher places. It is taught as the belief of not thinking less of yourself but instead thinking of yourself less. It is a moral standard that represents, in my mind, not a lack of pride or shame but an understanding of both and how best to live with each. It is okay to be prideful, it is okay to feel ashamed or dishonored at times. Life demands an ever-changing sense of things and an awareness of oneself that brings about a need for humility. While life never stops and neither should you, humility is one of several personality traits that I feel are to be absolute constants.
However, though being humble is good, it is also necessary to understand why you must be humble. Being humble requires the knowledge and understanding of what you are humbled by. To achieve any ounce of success in any field should bring about a sense of joy and pride and belief in yourself but those emotions and thoughts should also humble you. It should be a way to bring yourself back to what got you that success in the first place. Though there will be moments of great triumph like ascending a tall mountain, it is necessary to take a moment or two to not only enjoy the view but also look back. To see the trail of your blood, sweat, and tears behind you and realize how far you’ve come is what humility is all about. You have ascended a mountain to see the heavens yet your shadow hides all of the hardships it took to accomplish.
Humility is the awareness of all you have accomplished and also the knowledge that there is more ahead of you. I am a big fan of the concept of “you never get good, you only get better.” I like the believe that this statement is meant to help one realize that no matter how far you go and have much success you obtain, your journey will never be complete. That is a humble concept in my opinion because it embodies the ideal that there will always be something to slow or bring you down and humility lets you know that. According to my own thoughts, a humble mind must also know that it is a powerful mind, a willful one and indeed, a prideful one. But that is not a bad thing, like many other “negative” emotions and thoughts, they are present because there is also the opposing emotion present.
In the end, being humble is not about a lack of important or self-confidence but a awareness of your own true power. It is undoubted that with success comes both love and hate. But it is up to you to see all of the praise, admiration, and discontent for your accomplishments and know that it cannot change how you see and carry yourself. Staying humble is not a lessening of how you think of yourself but a lessening of how often you think of yourself. Not in terms of how you can improve or how you far you’ve come or how much you’ve done; moreover, it is a lessening of how often you think of yourself in terms of how others think of you. Win or lose, success or failure, you must always stay humble.
In truth, humility is a sense of who you are based on how you see yourself in relation to your future but more importantly your past. Know your own power, relish in your own accomplishments, understand how far you have come and have far you must go. No matter what happens in life; always, always stay humble.
THE RONIN SYSTEM 