It will be of no surprise to anyone who knows me that humility is not one of my strong suits. It isn’t last, but it does languish close to that. Part of the problem is that the word really has so many different definitions but people operate on their definition without ever checking to see if others have a similar view. What’s your view of humility? Because if it isn’t a value, it won’t be one of your characteristics.
I think that part of the problem with humility is that no one has a ‘acceptable’ definition and behavior related to the word. It is important to realize that humility is not groveling. Humility is not a passive action. Problem is… I really don’t like any of the definitions I’ve read. Most of them talk about abasing or lowering self, unpretentious, etc. To me this is not something I would want to do/be – I see no positive benefit to this. So what is the positive to the word?
Eventually I always go to the purpose of the word – what it is attempting to accomplish. From that I look at the definition in order to understand if this is what I want to describe me. With the word – humility – my definition is based in knowing who I am and whose I am and then behaving based on that definition. I’ve been successful and I’ve also been unsuccessful – but, I’ve never forgotten that the knowing is the foundation. But I also don’t view this as prideful.
I imagine it could be argued that I’m merely being arrogant… but that really is too simplistic. Regardless of the characteristic under discussion, we need to know what the purpose of the word is, how it looks in action (the associated behavior). Perhaps the issue is one of attitude. The attitude we associate and display with words. And in the case of humility, perhaps it is how we respond to opinions and people different from ours.
