Humility - The Antidote to Arrogance and Commitment to Growth

Humility is an attitude of being modest and a state of being humble. Humility is accurately seeing yourself and recognizing your abilities, owning your limitations, and asking how you can contribute and how you can grow with a curious outlook about life.

I was inspired to write on this topic as I thought about the people I am currently coaching and how they all seem to possess this one character trait, which I believe to be vital to their development and success. They have a willingness to see themselves as works in progress and welcome new ideas, techniques, and ways of doing things to achieve their goals and become better versions of themselves. It is utterly inspiring to work with individuals who are humble and open to acknowledging the gaps between where they are now and where they want to be, while having the determination to improve.

Core Aspects of Humility

Here are the six core aspects identified with having humility:

1. A willingness to see yourself truthfully
2. An accurate perception of your place in the world
3. The ability to acknowledge your mistakes and limitations and overcome them
4. An openness to continuously learn
5. A caring and compassionate attitude towards others
6. An appreciation of the value of all things

Benefits of Humility

Humility has incredible benefits that can significantly enhance social connection and your sense of belonging, as it allows you to relate to others with an openness about views, beliefs, and opinions and to learn from the achievements and mistakes of yourself and others. It also keeps you genuinely open to feedback, fostering trust, positive emotions, and confidence that can ultimately boost self-esteem, leading to greater happiness.

Practicing Humility

Here are a few tips for cultivating humility:

• Relentlessly pursue your own development by identifying your weaknesses and strengths and owning your imperfections. This way, you don't have to waste time and energy hiding them and pretending they don't exist. You can learn to embrace them and practice improving and overcoming them. Ask yourself and someone else how you can improve.
• Be grateful for all that you are and all that you have accomplished. Life is about learning and exploring new things and new people. Remind yourself of how appreciative you are to be alive each day and how far you have come.
• Invite curiosity at every level possible. Seek to understand by asking thoughtful questions that show you truly have an interest and care about someone. Let them be in the limelight and celebrate them and their accomplishments.

If you are interested in understanding what your current level of humility is and how you can cultivate it, take this quiz: Berkeley - Intellectual Humility

Being humble means recognizing that we are not on earth to see how important we can become, but to see how much difference we can make in the lives of others.

- Gordon B. Hinckley