If you are anything like me, then pride has played a beneficial role in your life. It’s saved you from embarrassing and cringeworthy situations. It’s made sure you held yourself together during trying and unhappy times. It’s tempered your emotions and calmed you down when your self-confidence was being beaten to a pulp. But, I hope you also realize, that your pride is holding you back.
Your pride has kept you from being vulnerable. It has shut others out and encouraged you to shy away from being deeply authentic with loved ones. It’s kept you from seeking out help and it’s definitely sugar coated a lot of your feelings. It might have even prompted you to lie instead of being fully honest about what was going on inside your head.
Pride is probably one of the biggest things I struggle with in my life, and I know you struggle with it, too. But letting your pride hold you back is a mistake. And taking back ownership of your life experiences is something we all have to work on every day.
So here are some tips that I have used in my life that I hope you can try to adopt, too.
Understand that you are only human
It’s easy to think that we are special or different from others. We want to be just a little bit above everyone else in the way we handle ourselves or react to life’s challenges. We want to be one step ahead of the game and make sure that from the outside looking in, our life seems perfect.
A lot of times, this strategy does us well. Our life continues to move forward as we take on more and more.
Until one day, it doesn’t. And we feel excruciatingly alone.
It is a guarantee that there will be times when you feel like giving up. Times when you just want to cry. Times when you question everything you’ve been working towards. But your pride stops you from letting it out. So instead of talking about it or sharing it or confessing all of your icky feelings – you bottle it up. Because letting others see who you are is scary! And your pride is constantly whispering in your ear that you are better than these vulnerable feelings.
In these moments, you need to remember that you are only human.
You do not always have to don your red cape and fly around town saving others. You don’t always have to wear your steel mask to keep others out. And you definitely can’t always carry around a magic wand, putting out fires e