If you’ve read any of my stuff in the past, you know I love words, and they seem to seep into my daily life. Some days a word will stick with me, whether out of a scripture passage I’ve read, a devotional, a book, or even the jumble puzzle in the newspaper. What’s I continue to be amazed by is how that one word will creep into multiple areas of my life with force and meaning.
This week the word that has been creeping into every part of my life is humility. Dictionary.com defines humility as the quality or condition of being humble. Having a modest opinion or estimate of one’s own importance, rank, etc. Have you ever really taken the time to think about that? How humble are you really? I realize we are all human beings and that in-and-of-itself can trip us up. We all want accolades for our accomplishments and we crave recognition.
I read the book of Galatians this week in my journey for spiritual growth and that theme jumped out at me. As I pondered the things I do boast about, I began to ask myself, how humble am I really? Who am I serving through my actions… other than myself? Are there days when I am full of myself?
As I pondered this, I posted a status update on Facebook, as a reminder to myself that is is not all about me. Just a few hours later I attended a presentation at work about Strategic Thinking. Only it wasn’t about how to be a strategic thinker, it was focused on the qualities of a strategic thinker. To my surprise, the two qualities that were highlighted in this presentation were humility and courage. Really…
The next day, we had our SIGMA Book Club review lunch where we discussed the book Linchpin by Seth Godin. How does one make themselves indispensable in the workplace? The theme of the book leads you down a path of artistry and the willingness to push past mediocrity. It placed emphasis on giving gifts and doing things because you should be doing them, not because you were told do. Dare to be great and don’t fear the failures, but learn from them. How do we learn from our failures? Through humility and our willingness to accept mistakes, learn from them and move forward.
Add to that my Life Plan, which I am working on with my mentor. To write a Life Plan takes reflection and meditation about the kind of person you want to be, where you want your life to go, and what you truly value. This process has made me re-prioritize my life and realize that I have, perhaps, placed emphasis on things that maybe shouldn’t be so important and need to focus less on me, and more on what gifts I have to offer and how I will improve myself so that I can give more of myself to the benefit of others. Again, in reflecting on my aspirations in life, I began to realize that some of them lacked humility.
So this week the word humility is with me. I have had to truly humble myself in the past for mistakes I have made, and I continue to make amends for some of those mistakes (which in itself is truly humbling). It’s not always easy, but boy oh boy is it rewarding. When we make things less about ourselves, the blessings truly do abound.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
Phillipians 2:3
I am working harder at being humble in all areas of my life, but especially in my work. I am just one member of this team, and my goal is provide value that is beneficial to those around me, and to the greater good of our company. In truth, yes, I do get really excited when I hear about the leads that are coming through our B2B marketing blog, and I get a kick out of watching our social media stats and enjoy the successes. But when I put aside my way of thinking and not worry about the recognition or glory, things always seem to turn out far better than I could have ever expected. Working on my humility is allowing me to enjoy those successes even more and share that joy with the members of the team who are right there working along side me.
So ask yourself today… Are you full of yourself? Can you work on being a bit more humble?
