Sunday, May 12, 2013

50 Ways To Be More Humble




"It's hard to be humble," says an old country song, "when you're perfect in every way." Of course, few people actually think they're perfect in every way. But it can still be pretty hard to be humble, especially if you live in a society that encourages competition and individuality. Yet, even in such a culture, humility remains an important virtue. Learning to be humble is of paramount importance in most spiritual traditions, and humility can help you develop more fully and enjoy richer relationships with others.

  1. Use the response “It’s My Pleasure” when someone thanks you for doing something.
  2. Use the response “I’d be honored” when someone asks you to help them or do something with them.
  3. Listen more than you talk
  4. Count to 3 before adding to a conversation to ensure the other person is done
  5. Be willing to follow another person in conversation even if you don’t get to talk about your idea
  6. Always offer to improve someone else’s idea and give them credit
  7. Give credit for other’s ideas that you are carrying through on
  8. Ask others for the opinion of others
  9. Ask others to join conversations and contribute
  10. It’s OK to be wrong and so admit it
  11. Admit when you don’t understand or know something
  12. Appreciate others who learn something quickly and say so
  13. Be quick to apologize when you do something wrong
  14. Study moral principles
  15. Use moral principles to guide you
  16. You are God’s creation, not your own
  17. Recognize your talents as gifts, not your own ability
  18. Know how your skills have only be developed by the help of others
  19. Share your own knowledge to pass on what you have learned
  20. Pass on thanks when you receive it to those who helped you achieve what was thanked
  21. Value other people’s time as much as your own
  22. Never equate time spent with people to a dollar value
  23. Don’t boast about your achievements, let others recognize them instead
  24. Keep your goals to yourself
  25. Help other people with their goals
  26. Realize the potential in others
  27. Know that timing is everything and everyone excels at different times in life
  28. Being the 1st follower is often the best way to lead
  29. Since winning isn’t everything, you don’t have to win
  30. Recognize that you have faults
  31. Remember you are a sinner (in other words, you are no better or worse than anyone else)
  32. Ignore first impressions of people
  33. Give others the benefit of the doubt
  34. Provide positive and encouraging feedback instead of criticism
  35. Make a choice to act more humbly
  36. Practice at least one humble act each day
  37. Be grateful for successes without boasting about them
  38. Know how to accept praise with a simple thank you, don’t elaborate on it or talk more about it
  39. Recognize the individualism of others and yourself, there is no need to conform
  40. Share your core values and live them accordingly regardless of the circumstances
  41. Prioritize things in your life and rate your actions on whether to followed that priority or not
  42. Rate other people as first, be less significant
  43. Forgive those who wrong you and move on without revenge or lashing back
  44. Serve others and not yourself first
  45. Seek wisdom, which is knowledge of what is true coupled with just judgment of action
  46. Recognize and know that you know little and there is always more to learn
  47. Avoid explosive reactions, and subside any aggression
  48. Accept new ideas and change, not being stuck on what you knew before
  49. Teach all that you can for the benefit of others
  50. Learn from and model the life of the most humble teachers in history (Jesus, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Buddha, etc)

Originally posted on: Learn This

9 comments:

  1. I have a problem with understanding the 33rd... Can anyone help me understand it better?
    Btw. if nothing else, example could help a lot.

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    Replies
    1. Trust, at least as I see it.

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    2. "Benefit of the doubt" means "assume the best until the doubt is erased." If you doubt that someone is sincere, assume that he IS sincere. If you doubt that someone has made a good effort, assume that he DID make a good effort. If someone hurt your feelings, assume that he did not intend to do you wrong. The other person might eventually prove himself to be insincere / lazy / maliciousness, but giving him the benefit of the doubt means that you will not think Ill of him as long as there is the possibility that his intentions are honorable.

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    3. Agreed with the above statements. I think being empathetic/putting yourself in another's shoes often helps. in my life, I have realized the more I know about a person & their past, the more their actions make sense to me. we do not all have the same knowledge, life experience, abilities or opinion. Not all actions are intended to be hurtful or selfish. think of this, if you get cut off in traffic, it may be because the other party did not know where they were going, had a screaming child that distracted them from seeing a sign, are running out of gas, heading to the hospital for an emergency or impending death of a loved one.... see, now you don't need the road rage when you give the other driver the "benefit of the doubt" by thinking there may be a reason to doubt that they maliciously wanted to be self-serving...therefore you are giving them the "benefit" of your kinder thoughts by "doubting" your 1st assumption of why they did what they did.

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  2. ...forgive them because they may know not what they do...?
    Everyone has lessons to learn and maybe they have not learned the lesson they need to yet. One day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much. It helps, actually. Btw. I was translating it to my native language and I just didn't want to lose the meaning in the sentence. Again, thank you.

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  3. a guy that has landed on this page, is translating it to his native language, and is asking for help understanding a part of it...has probably just about mastered humility lol awesome.... (GREAT post BTW)

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  4. Very interesting post. Thanks for taking the time to write it down and share.

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  5. Thank you & god bless you.

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