BEING PROUD OF YOURSELF OR BEING OVERWHELMED WITH PRIDE

Being proud of yourself is different from being overwhelmed with pride. The first is positive, the second is negative, yet people can count the fact that you are proud of yourself as being overwhelmed with pride especially when you overdo and over carry yourself. There must be modesty in all you do. Being proud of yourself starts from acknowledging, appreciating and valuing your gender, family, environment, education, achievements, activities/involvements, relationships and connections; not to forget beauty, career, promotion and other personal things. Being proud of yourself positively is a good thing, when done well it has lots of benefits. Being proud of yourself helps to ascertain the fact that you know your worth. It explains that you are not subject to the thoughts and views of others. It shows that you have overcome a lot of obstacles, troubles, fear, challenges; curveballs life has thrown at you and a lot more situations. It tells you that you have grown wiser, you are no longer living with that shallow level of wisdom you used to carry about, you have learned a lot overtime, you have really grown and developed. In some great things you have done in your life, you have succeeded and you have achieved a lot. You are special, you are unique, and you stand out wherever you are due to your personality, skills and talents. Whether you like it or not, you are an inspiration to a lot of people, you have directly or indirectly motivated someone to doing something great. In spite of all you have achieved, you are still growing to become better and greater version of yourself; this alone is worth being proud of. To help you feel proud of yourself, set goals that you can work with and achieve, appreciate all what you have done and note them, be willing to learn and grow, give yourself credit for whatever thing you do or achieve, be positive-give and say positive statement to yourself, be patient with all that is happening and yourself. Being overwhelmed with pride explains a person who has a great sense of feeling good, in this sense it means that the person has no regard for others but only regards what he or she does. Being overwhelmed with pride here is usually unhealthy and shows arrogance. As bad as it is, there is a minute good in it, in the sense that people’s unhealthy pride can be a push to making them succeed believing they made it all by themselves but then the aftermath of their success (pompous act) is really a bad one. Unhealthy pride is most times driven by low self esteem, low self worth, shame, insults from people and critics. Personally, you might never know you are becoming proud but then there are ways to recognize and overcome it before things get out of hands. Be aware and conscious of all of your behavior and reasoning. Do not be too serious with handle yourself; take things not too lightly but not too tightly. Do not be too rigid or feel too be to ask questions. Have an open heart, an open mind, an open spirit. Endeavour to be more of a listener than a talker. Understand the fact that it is you first before others, not you always though. Pride surely results in isolation, despair, brings up deceit, opens door to destruction some times. You definitely will understand that you do not need to be overwhelmed with pride, just be proud of yourself. Rate yourself well but not at the expense of others. By Akinleye Grace Oluwabusola @grace_akinleye