Humility

“The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.”

Proverbs 22:4

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

James 4:6

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Luke 14:11

Humility is a trait missing in many men. Lack of humility signifies lack of confidence. Most men boast in order to compensate for an inner feeling of insufficiency. Lack of humility pervades the religious world and is highly concentrated in the youth groups (which should be abolished). Fathers no longer raise their sons to esteem others as equals or to admire men of character. In fact, most fathers are completely disengaged with their sons and would be shocked if they found out what their sons were doing behind their backs.

Fathers do not correct their sons during “adolescence” when they exhibit far too much pride. Nor do fathers prepare their sons to anticipate the biological changes of puberty and help arm them for the constant warfare of sexual discipline. This is because most fathers do not take time to think. They merely impregnated a female and created an offspring, and this does not magically make them good fathers. If men are to learn humility from anyone, it should be from their own father. 

You must understand in your own mind that humility is not self-deprecation, even though that can be a byproduct.

Humility is being able to view yourself exactly how you are, not better than you are. Humility is how you view your own importance with respect to the importance of others. Do you think you are the next great thing? Do you think everyone is interested in hearing about your life all the time? You are not humble if you think in this way. Any man who thinks they are great is nothing more than the result of social media-induced egocentrism. 

The humble man treats others as if they were better than him, though he does not self-deprecate. Ahumble man does not overestimate his worth or importance, he is acutely aware of his skills and abilities but his ego does not exaggerate them. The humble man does not oversell himself in a job interview, but he still looks for opportunities to advance in career and personal work.

People enjoy being around humble men.

People especially enjoy being around men who are truly excellent at everything they do, yet are still humble. It is one thing to be an average man who is great at nothing and be humble, anyone can do that. It is another thing to be a renowned businessman, builder, thinker or writer and still be humble. Men are drawn to other men who exhibit excellence tempered with humility. No one wants to be around the man who boasts about his career, especially when he is likely not skilled at what he does.

The humble man gives credit to others in his group and team, even if he did the vast majority of the work.

He looks for opportunities to share the credit even if the project was not possible without his involvement. Deep humility distills the need for validation and discards it. The humble man does not feel the constant need to be praised because he has self-esteem. 

This image of the humble man is an extreme ideal, and is achieved by almost none, but it should still be striven after. In all things, even if ideals are lofty and appear far off, they should still be aimed at nonetheless. By pursuing huge ideals, we propel ourselves to greatness at any endeavor we choose, even humility. 

Mantra

I am behaving with humility.

Application

Pride is a sneaky and deceptive disease. It lies dormant, grows under the skin and bursts out overnight. It is very difficult to recognize pride in yourself because it is a silent disease. Pride is the high blood pressure of the soul – it’s symptomless until it bursts an artery.

Pride is constantly looking for holes in your character to ooze out of. Humility shuts the pride-disease down. Humility begins by programming the mind to be humble first thing in the morning, this is done by using Mantras. Your humility continues to grow day-to-day by becoming more conscious of the disease of pride and crushing it. 

Two-thirds of the battle for humility is crushing pride and forcing it into submission to your will.

You must fill in the sinkholes of character before building structures of achievement. In your pursuit of greatness, possessing consciousness of your flaws by your self-awareness is your greatest tool. With this you obliterate vice from the face of the earth, you drive it out from your land. 

The last one-third of humility is programming the mind to act with honor, and this is done simply by preparing the mind to be humble before you are in a situation where humility is required. You must stock up supplies to go to war with your pride and beat into subservience. 

Tactic I – The Foundation

1. Detach from yourself. View yourself as a movie character you are watching from the outside. 
2. Examine your personal abilities objectively and with a critical eye.
3. Realize you are not special.
4. Work Harder

Tactic II – The Social Setting

1. Be conscious of yourself when you are in social settings. Observe your interactions in a detached manner – again, as if you were watching yourself as a movie character. 
2. Be prepared to be kind to others and treat them with respect.
3. Admire others instead of yourself.
4. Remember you are not special

Crush your pride. 

Develop your humility. 

Prepare your mind for war until the end. You win or you die. 

Conduct yourselves like Men.