The Pride of Humility: A Paradox?

There are many good lines in Max Ehrmann's poetic piece of counsel titled Desiderata, but a few really stand out to me as having significance for my life. One of these is If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. This speaks of the need to develop a sense of proper perspective and balance when engaging in personal endeavors that are open for public evaluation and comparison with others. It's true: usually I am pretty good at whatever I set my mind to do, but there are always going to be those who are better than me in whatever area I am working at.

I have discovered, while engaging in an activity like swimming or learning to speak a foreign language, that I often feel pretty incompetent and foolish. But I also recognize that only by refusing to feel intimidated by the fear of looking (or sounding) bad will I be able to stick with a project until I ultimate attain a satisfactory level of ability. I am learning, at this late age in my life, to punch through this often embarrassing period in learning new things by embracing the humility of spirit that it imposes on me. And then refusing to allow that humility to turn into humiliation, but instead cultivate a sense of pride that I have the guts to try new things regardless how poorly I may do them at first.

Humility is a virtue, and if you can practice it (without putting yourself down) then you should be proud! A sense of humor about one's own folly can contribute to humility and make it more enjoyable. When I am striving to learn to do something that others do better than me, I respect and accept with humility their superiority in that particular area and am proud that I want to improve myself, possibly to their level or even higher. But most likely there will still remain some with better abilities, and I'd like to be proud enough to say that this is O.K.!