Self-Confidence and Pride

 Have you ever thought about how far your self-confidence and the pride stemming from it can take you? Every person has a certain level of self-confidence – some have less, some more, and some have an immense amount. Without self-confidence, nothing is possible. Even a person with a disability has a certain degree of self-confidence; without it, they wouldn't move a muscle. They must believe they can move; otherwise, they wouldn't even try.

A typical person with "standard" self-confidence believes, for example, that they can ride a bike, drive a car or a plane, or perform a specific job. Women believe they are beautiful, look good, and are attractive to men. Men believe they are "manly," attractive to women, and so on. But what happens when self-confidence is immense? Combined with luck, it can be very beneficial for an individual – and even for humanity as a whole. If scientists didn't "believe" they were the ones to make groundbreaking discoveries, we might still be riding horses or carriages drawn by them. This is "healthy" self-confidence.

But there's one significant caveat: self-confidence often leads to pride.

Pride

What is pride? Pride is a human trait that gives a person a "divine" feeling. People are generally proud of themselves when they can do something better than others. Whether it's an astrophysicist, a doctor, a racer, or even a garbage collector. Yes, even a garbage collector can be proud of themselves for doing work that many people find distasteful, yet someone must do it.

This is "healthy" pride – the kind that gives you that divine feeling of being able to do something others cannot. However, a problem arises when a person begins to display their pride and self-confidence to others through superiority or even contempt. Such pride is no longer healthy, as it creates feelings of harm, humiliation, envy, or even fear and hatred in others.

Have You Ever Reflected on Your Pride?

Have you ever thought about how many people you might have hurt, even unknowingly? How many people you've humiliated? How many people envy or hate you because of your self-confidence and pride?

Have you ever considered how far your self-confidence and pride can take you? How far are you willing to go to maintain and prove your self-confidence and pride? What are you willing to do for it? Would you risk your life (as a racer might), stand against a group that will eventually manage without you anyway (since no one is irreplaceable), or even get divorced?

Self-confidence and pride are the biggest killers of love in today's world – even between partners. After all, one person can't do everything. They might excel at one thing but fail at another. Another person may have the opposite set of skills, and that's why partners complement each other. Unfortunately, nowadays, people tend to flaunt their self-confidence and pride everywhere – even in relationships. They don't mind that it might hurt their partner. But then comes a time when the partner gets tired of it. What follows is anger, disdain, or even hatred. And relationships – whether friendships or partnerships – often come to an end.

Pride and Relationships

Why should one stop being proud of themselves, and why should the other have to put up with it? At this point, people completely forget why they became friends, why and how they fell in love. Why? Is human ego so enormous, or has self-confidence and pride grown so much that someone feels they no longer need the other person?

How unpleasant the surprise is when someone realizes what they've actually lost. People possess both good and bad traits. There is no "perfect" person in this world. The fact that we have flaws and make mistakes is what makes us unique individuals. If we were all perfect, flawless, and without "quirks," we'd essentially be one collective consciousness. But then we wouldn't be people; we wouldn't be a society – we'd simply be "one."

Every individual should recognize not only what they're good at and where they excel over others but also where they fall short and where others excel over them. Because if they don't realize this in time, they might end up regretting it, thinking, "If only I had known, guessed, assumed." But by then, it's often a case of "too little, too late."

Reflection and Instinct

Every person should follow their intuition and instinct because these tools try to warn us and guide us toward the right path. But we'll reflect on that next time.

AI Summary

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On Your Reflection About Self-Confidence and Pride

Your reflection on self-confidence and pride touches on several key points:

Self-confidence: How different people perceive self-confidence and its importance in their lives.

Pride: Pride as a human trait, which can be positive ("healthy pride") or negative (superiority, contempt).

Negative consequences of pride: How superiority and contempt can lead to feelings of harm, humiliation, envy, fear, and hatred in others.

Pride and relationships: How self-confidence and pride influence friendships and partnerships and how they can lead to their end.

Ego and relationships: How ego and self-confidence can make people forget vital aspects of their relationships.

Reflection: A call to reflect on our own strengths and weaknesses and how they affect our relationships with others.