Do you want to learn how to be humble?
Are you seeking to be a better individual by learning how to be humble?
Do you feel the need to learn how to be humble so you can develop a likable personality?
Humility is an admirable quality for anyone to have either as a business owner, entrepreneur, or a regular individual.
However, in this dog-eat-dog society that we find ourselves in right now, humility seems to be old-fashioned.
In other words, it is a quality most people rarely possess.
This could be due to certain misconceptions that people have about humility.
Despite that, humility is still a very important quality that influences human behavior positively.
It can also be said to be an important determinant for success in every aspect, be it business, work, or personal life.
Hence, the need for anyone to know how to be humble.
Read on to find out all you need to know about humility and how to be humble.
How To Be Humble
It could be that you’ve noticed certain traits of arrogancy in you and to be a better person, you want to learn how to be humble.
Additionally, it could be that your arrogant attitude is causing you to have so many failed relationships in business, work, and life generally.
Hence, you’re looking for ways to be humble so you can be a better person and build better relationships.
If this describes you, there are ways you can learn to be humble.
However, before then, let’s consider the following;
- What does humility mean?
- Misconceptions about humility
- Characteristics or traits of humble people
- Why is humility important for success?
This is so you can understand the concept fully and how to be humble.
Let’s dive right in.
What Does Humility Mean?
Merriam Webster dictionary defines humility as freedom from pride and arrogance.
Humility is having a feeling of low self-importance and having a modest view of oneself.
Overall, it can be said that being humble is all about thinking of yourself less and being modest in your behavior with people around you.
Now you know what it means to be humble, let’s discover some of the misconceptions about humility.
Misconceptions About Humility
Sometimes due to the meanings attached to humility, humility is usually perceived in a negative light.
This is because many people seem to perceive humility as a virtue of weakness.
Based on this, they tend to have certain misconceptions about humility.
Here are some of the misconceptions people have about humility.
Humility Means Lack Of Self-Worth
Since being humble requires that you think of yourself less, most people make up an idea in their head that being humble means to lack self-worth.
Humility isn’t the feeling of a lack of self-worth.
On the contrary, humility is knowing your self-worth but not letting it get into your head.
One is said to be humble if he/she has every reason to be arrogant but isn’t.
Based on this, humility isn’t the lack of self-worth but having the understanding that you aren’t more important than other people around you.
Humility Means Self-degradation
This is another misconception most people tend to have about humility.
They feel that being humble means having no regard for yourself or feeling less important than others.
It isn’t about putting yourself so low that you lack value and respect in the sight of people around you.
Rather, it is about being modest about your accomplishments, abilities, and strengths.
It is also about realizing that nobody is perfect and being open to learning from people around you.
Humility Means Lacking Confidence
People also tend to mistake humility for low self-esteem and lack of confidence.
Being humble doesn’t mean that you should lack the confidence to speak up when necessary.
It also doesn’t mean that you should subject yourself to oppression.
Being humble doesn’t mean looking down on yourself and feeling like you’re not good enough.
Rather it means knowing the difference between confidence and arrogance.
As a humble person, you can speak your mind when necessary but politely and respectfully.
Humility Is Just A Religious Virtue
Another mistake most people make is believing that humility is only a religious virtue and so doesn’t apply to other aspects of life.
Humility indeed is one of the religious virtues to possess.
Also, it may seem to apply more in religious settings.
This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t apply to other areas of life.
Humility is a quality that applies to every aspect of life be it business, work, and personal life.
Even more, humility is one of the most admirable qualities that is sought after in most individuals in various fields of life.
You’ll get to understand this when we look into why humility is important for success.
There are other misconceptions about humility, this is just a few of the most important ones we thought to share with you in this blog post.
Let’s discover the characteristics/ traits of a humble person.
This is so you’ll know what character/traits you’re expected to have as a humble person.
Characteristics Of A Humble Person
What are the specific behavior or qualities of a humble person?
A humble person is generally;
- open to learning (teachable)
- respectful to every and anyone
- always grateful
- listens to other people
- generous /willing to offer help to people
- celebrates other people and their accomplishments
- knows he/she isn’t perfect
- always willing to ask for help
- not easily offended
- …..among others
These above are some of the characteristics of a humble person.
Earlier, we stated that humility can also be considered as one of the determinants of success in every facet of life.
Let’s examine why this is so before we move on to discuss how to be humble.
Why Is Humility Important For Success
Humility is important for success because it influences your general behavior as an individual towards, business, professional, and personal life.
Besides that, it is important because of the following reasons;
Humility Helps You Remain Focused
Humble people are more likely to remain focused on their goals than people who are prideful and arrogant.
They do not let their accomplishments get to their head.
Thereby, preventing them from losing focus on their goals and helping them recognize the need to keep working hard to accomplish more.
On the other hand, people proud and arrogant are always full of themselves.
With any little accomplishments, they feel like they’re at the top of the world.
Thereby, making it difficult for them to recognize opportunities for growth and development.
So humility is necessary for success because it keeps you focused and makes you realize the need for growth and development.
Consequently, making you push harder to achieve greater heights in whatever you do.
Humility Makes You Open To Learning
Arrogant people are always full of themselves.
They always feel perfect and think that they know it all.
This makes them less teachable.
Hence, making it difficult for them to learn new things and grow in their chosen fields.
One of the fundamental keys to success in any given area is continuous learning.
Humble people, on the other hand, are teachable.
They acknowledge their areas of weaknesses and are open to improvement in those areas by learning.
Thereby making them better individuals capable of achieving success in whatever they do.
Humble People Are Mostly Positive Minded
Another reason why humility is important for success is that it helps you have a positive mindset.
A positive mindset is a mindset that focuses on the bright side of things.
Humility teaches you to practice gratitude and be happy with life.
Thereby making you treat each day as a blessing regardless of the negative circumstances around you.
This is very important because it determines your general disposition towards your goals and other areas of life.
By being positively minded, you’ll be motivated to work on your goals despite the challenges you might encounter.
It also makes you free from anxiety, worrying, and other negative emotions.
This improves your mental health.
Consequently improving overall performance level as an individual and helping you achieve success in whatever you do.
Now we fully understand the concept of being humble, let’s discover how to build humility as an individual.
Tips On How To Be Humble; Building Humility
Just like every other habit or quality, humility can be learned.
Either as an individual trying to become a better person or an individual trying to build leadership qualities, you can learn to be humble.
Bear in mind that learning a new habit or behavior trait begins with you.
Yes, it begins with you acknowledging the existence of a problem (bad habit or behavior).
It also begins with your willingness to change.
Without the willingness to change, it would be highly impossible to change from your bad behavior to a good one.
Hence, if you’re ready to change from an arrogant person to a better person, here’s how to be humble.
It has to do with changing bad behavior patterns to better ones and learning to let go of your ego.
Acknowledge Your Strengths And Weaknesses
This is the first thing you should know about how to be humble.
One of the traits of a humble person we considered was the realization that no one is perfect.
There’s no one person as long as we are humans that knows it all.
Only arrogant people feel like they know it all.
To be humble, you must know that you have your strengths and weaknesses.
Acknowledge the fact that while you might be good at most things, there are certain areas where you’re lacking.
Having this in mind always will keep you modest as a person and in your relationship with the people around you.
Consequently helping you to be humble.
Accept Feedback And Compliments As Encouragement To Do Better
Arrogant people see compliments and feedback on their accomplishments as a definition of their “special” abilities.
I say “special” because they allow these compliments to get to their head.
Thereby making them feel proud and develop a false sense of self-importance.
There’s nothing wrong with accepting genuine compliments or positive feedbacks.
However, don’t let them get to your head and boost your ego.
Accept them as feedback to keep doing your best as you’ve always done and even do better where possible.
Thereby, helping you to be humble.
Don’t Brag About Your Accomplishments
Proud or arrogant people are always in the habit of bragging about their accomplishments.
They boast of their achievements even when they’re not asked to just to get a feeling of self-importance and satisfy their ego.
To be humble you’ll need to stop bragging about your accomplishments.
By all means, appreciate your accomplishments.
However, learn to be modest and let your accomplishments speak for themselves.
More so, only refer to your accomplishments only when necessary with the aim of encouraging others and not to rub your achievements in their faces.
Consequently, helping you to be humble.
Appreciate And Compliment Other People
This is another important tip on how to be humble.
Arrogant people are always full of themselves.
They always feel that there are better and more important than other people around them.
Due to this, they find it difficult to appreciate the strengths and achievements of other people.
To be humble learn to acknowledge other people around you.
When you see someone better than you at something, acknowledge and compliment them.
Appreciate people who are good at something that you’re not.
Learn to give them credit where due and give them encouraging feedback when necessary.
Thus helping you to be humble and open-minded.
Be Teachable
This is one of the most important qualities of a humble person.
A humble person acknowledges the fact that no one knows it all and so is open to learning.
Even, more, they acknowledge the fact that they can’t always be right about everything all the time.
So, they are always open to the opinions of other people.
To be humble you need to learn to accept the fact that you can’t always be the best at what you do.
Yes, you might for a fact be the best at what you do.
However, there are certain things that you’ll be unable to do.
Likewise, there are times when you’ll get it all wrong due to certain known and unknown factors.
Hence, be a teachable person.
In other words, be open to learning from other people around you no matter how good you might be.
Thus helping you to be humble.
Don’t Be Obsessed With Perfectionism
One of the characteristics of pride and/or arrogance is perfectionism.
In this sense, perfectionism is being obsessed with the feeling of being right all the time.
Just as we saw with the feeling of knowing it all, arrogant people feel the need to be right about everything.
There are perfectionists.
Hence, they do not accept their faults or admit it when they are wrong about something.
To be humble you must learn to accept that humans are flawed and as such are capable of making mistakes.
So, learn to admit when you’re not right about something.
Thereby, helping you avoid perfectionism and to be humble.
Show Genuine Respect For Others
Another important tip about how to be humble is learning to show respect for other people.
Arrogant people are selfish and preoccupied with their esteemed self-image.
This makes them feel more important or valuable than the people around them.
This feeling of self-importance could be as a result of their accomplishments.
Humility requires that you don’t allow your accomplishments to get to your head that you feel more important and deserving of respect than other people around you.
Hence, to be humble, you must learn to respect people around you regardless of your position or accomplishments.
You shouldn’t see yourself as more important than them just because you’re privileged to possess certain things that they lack.
Thereby, helping you avoid arrogance and helping you to be humble.
Always Remember That Life Isn’t Only About You
One other important you should keep in mind is this.
To be a humble person, you need to realize that life isn’t only about you.
Selfishness and humility do not go hand in hand.
Hence, live your life daily with the realization that life is about everyone else as it is about you.
With this in mind, you’ll learn to appreciate, respect, and value people better.
You’ll also focus on making people feel good, loved, and valued regardless of their status or accomplishments.
Consequently, helping you to avoid selfishness and practice humility.
Final Thoughts On How To Be Humble
That’s it on how to be humble.
A quick reminder of some of the major points discussed.
Humility isn’t about lacking self-worth or self-esteem.
It is about knowing your self-worth and being modest about it.
Additionally, humility isn’t a negative quality of weakness as many people tend to think.
Rather, it is an admirable quality that makes you a better business owner, leader, or individual generally.
Hence, the need to know how to be humble.
Use these tips to become a better person today by doing away with arrogance and building humility.
Here’s to a better you.
Is humility a sign of weakness to you?
Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.
We would love to hear from you.
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