Pride: Friend or Foe
August 8th, 2007 Posted in Creating Success, Curt's ArticlesPride is a funny thing. It is both positive and negative, motivating and de-motivating.
The trick is the ability to have pride but not to be full of pride.
Pride is that little twinge you get when you’re in a conversation, but have to get the last word in. It is that little voice that tells you that your are not wrong. It is that feeling of entitlement, whether it is valid or not.
Pride is also that motivating voice that will not allow you to fail. It pushes you to win while faced with a challenge, and it protects your ego from being bruised when not successful. It serves as a pushing force to continue your pursuit of happiness and the fulfillment of your dreams.
I have often made the remark to people that pride is not a good thing. That is not really the case. To re-write that statement; it should read, “miss-guided pride” is not a good thing.
So what is the balance?
This is where you need to really focus on yourself. I believe stubbornness is born from being too pride-full. Most of us can relate to being stubborn at different times during of our lives. The key is too figure out how to balance just enough pride in ourselves to push us forward, but not make us stubborn.
I have seen miss-guided pride be the downfall of many intelligent people. Many times the feeling of Entitlement without the hard work is what begins the downturn.
Perhaps you know someone that feels that are owed something? It is that person that always appears unhappy and speaks negative of their manager and company, because they have not been given “enough” of something to succeed.
It’s discouraging to see people like this. What they lack is the understanding that they are not owed anything by anyone. Being born does not entitle anyone to a life of wealth and happiness. Being born simply allows you the opportunity to pursue wealth and happiness. How you pursue it is entirely up to you.
Use pride to fuel your desire to bounce back from an unsuccessful effort. When pride is used in this way, you will never fail. Failure can only occur when you allow yourself to give in to the temptation to settle for a less then desired result.
It is important to learn from every unsuccessful situation then apply your new knowledge to your next challenge. If you do this, and allow your Pride to push you into not accepting failure, you will accomplish whatever you choose.
Tell me this. Is Pride your Friend or Foe?
Your Goal this Month:
1) Think back to a recent situation where you were in a conversational argument, did you hold your viewpoint steady even when your co-conversationalist made good arguments? What could you have done differently to gain a better result?
2) Make an effort to be more open minded in your communication with others. In your next argument, try to take a step back and listen to their point of view.