Humility
A general overview
This is part of a personal learning exercise inspired by Feynman’s Technique for Learning, feel free to identify gaps or opportunities for improvement.
Humility is two things: a way of life and an emotion.
What does it mean for humility to be a way of life? Like things such as kindness or fear, humility is a group of beliefs. These beliefs are like windows that you look through at yourself, other people, and the world around you. When you are humble, you see your own strengths and imperfections for what they are. Rather than hide from these or make them seem bigger or different, you accept them. You see other people and their needs as important as your own. When you are humble you are more interested in getting things right than on being the one who got it right. You want to hear other people’s ideas and celebrate their strengths. You don’t need other people’s nice words to feel like you are good at something or important.
When you are humble, everything around you is interesting and a source of learning. You learn from people or things that annoy or even hurt you. You are open to new ideas. When you are humble you get excited when you are wrong about something if it means doing better in the future. Having humility as a way of life is very difficult. Trying to be humble is a hard thing because once you think you are humble, you aren’t!
Humility is also an emotion. When you feel humility you recognize that you are a small piece of something bigger than anything you can control. Sometimes you feel humility when you learn something new. Other times you feel humility when you realize you didn’t do something well. Depending on how you choose to think about your feelings, humility can turn into other emotions like gratitude, curiosity, shame, sadness.
References
Brown Brené. (2022). Atlas of the heart: Mapping meaningful connection and the language of human experience. Random House Large Print.
Dalai Lama [Tenzin Gyatso] and Desmond Tutu. 2016. The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World. With Douglas Abrams. New York: Avery.
Ether 12:27, The Book of Mormon.
Peterson, C. (2012, April 1). The “so what” of humility. Psychology Today. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-good-life/201204/the-so-what-humility
Philippians 2:3–4, Holy Bible, King James Version.
Weidman, A. C., Cheng, J. T., & Tracy, J. L. (2016, July 25). The Psychological Structure of Humility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000112
