Towards Humility

Author Unknown

There was a young man who wanted to be humble. He went to an old wise man and said to him, "What must I do to acquire humility?" The old wise man thought for a minute and replied, "Go out and find someone who is beneath you. Give him something that you have or do something for him that needs to be done." The young man immediately left and came upon a homeless man on the street. He took the man to a restaurant and bought him a nice hot meal. After that, he returned to the wise man and told him what he had done. He then asked him, "Do I now have humility?" The wise old man replied, "Not yet!" The young man's face fell and after a while, he asked the wise man, "What else must I do to acquire humility?" The wise man said, "Go out and find someone else who is beneath you and do something nice for him." This upset the young man and he asked, "How many people do I have to help… 10 people?"

"No!"

"100 people?"

"No!"

The wise old man replied, "You will have obtained humility when you can no longer find anyone that you think is beneath you!"

Reflection:

In simple terms, humility is the absence of pride. It is important to never base your self-worth on how you compare yourself with others. Lack of humility will enhance your ego and instil a false sense of pride deep within you. A healthy and uplifting way to obtain humility is to keep focusing on yourself and how you, personally can improve and in turn improve the world around you through your own positive growth. You can't just wake up one day and have mastered humility, it is one of those traits that will keep on challenging you throughout your life. Truth be told, we are all far from perfect, but that doesn't mean we can't strive for perfection. If you work hard on the attribute of humility you can reach a high level of self mastery... never stop working on this.

May you have an enlightening week, where you are able to maintain pride about who you are, your achievements, your worth – but without arrogance.

Darren Zwiers

"On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom."  ― Michel de Montaigne