You need to be very careful with pride. It can bury itself in your subconscious and sabotage you before you know it. It will permeate your thoughts, words, and actions. Without intending, you will come across as arrogant, conceited, and selfish. These are not qualities that endear people to you. Consider the following principles to maintain your humility
Recognize your own faults: I want you to recognise that making mistakes is normal for humans; there is no one that is seemingly infallible. You must however prevent yourself from judging other people, instead of building relationships. Judging people increases friction and deny us the privilege of effective growth.
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes: Humble young minds make mistakes but yet make effort to avoid unnecessary mistakes. They are not frightened to follow new paths, adopt new methods and get better ways to achieving their desires.
Avoid bragging: There is no crime in being gorged with one’s accomplishment. Since when did it become a crime to be the best student in school? It never has and it will never be but when you try to speak condescendingly, or appear grandiloquent creating undue attention to yourself, then you are far from being humble. Give people the privilege to notice you and respect you.
Admit that you’re not the best at everything: Every student is unique and have unique talents, which means, you are unique in your way. You must however know what you are very good at, and if you haven’t discovered that, take time to discover it. In the areas you need to improve, be sincere enough to call out to your colleagues for help.
Don’t take all the credit: No great thing is achieved in isolation; every successful person has the support of people. It is however wrong to take all the credit for success in life or academics. When you represent your school for a competition, the humble thing afterwards especially when you emerge winner is to appreciate your colleagues for their support and most importantly the school. Always recognise this, and the sky is the starting point for you.
Listen more than you talk: Many times, a few young minds believe they know all so they want to do all the talking and that is not wisdom at all. In listening, you are showing how humble you are to hear the perspective of your colleague. In the listening process, you do not interrupt, you concentrate and you also ask questions to engage such person. Like it was noted earlier, you do not know it all, therefore listen, you can even learn more by listening.
Apologize: When you apologise for doing wrong to any one, it doesn’t make you make you less, it makes you better. It radiates the trait of humility in you, however painful it may seem, you have communicated value when you acknowledge your mistake and apologise. Make effort to apologise when you are wrong, that is a great way to be humble.
