A Quick Lesson in Humility
Pride tells us we’ve been slighted. That we deserve more or better. Self centeredness assures us, it is all about us. That the world revolves around us as individuals, along with our wants, desires and needs.
Reality reminds us time and time again, it doesn’t. The world does not care about your wants. We, as individuals, are entitled to nothing. Nothing we don’t work for or towards, anyhow. As much as we may feel as though the world revolves around us and fear the tiny parts of it we’ve had a slight impact on would crumble in our absence, it wouldn’t. Life goes on. We’re not nearly as significant as we make ourselves out to be. Killing your ego provides freedom.
Humility is a beautiful thing. It frees us from pride and ego. I was given a small dose of it myself a few hours ago on my morning run and truly embraced it. I had just passed the one mile mark and was moving at a pace I was happy with, just under eleven minutes per mile. I was soaking in the sun and grooving to whatever song Spotify had thrown at me — I was in the zone. Just as I started to feel proud a woman who appeared to be barely trying blew right by me. Before I knew it, she was twenty yards ahead.
Pride and ego told me to catch up. The immature grade school boy inside of me questioned how I could just let “a girl” blow by me like that from behind. I picked up my pace yet somehow could not manage to close the gap between her and I.
Quickly I recognized how absurd the last three thoughts I had were and immediately realized they came from a place of pride and ego. That they were immature and childish.
The only person I’m competing with when I run is myself. My only aim is to do better than I set out to do on any given day, or better than I did the day before. Forgive the corny metaphor but a blooming flower never worries what the flower next to it is doing, it’s too focused on its own growth. It just blooms.
I accepted the fact, I was not going to pass her without suffering a massive coronary occlusion first. I smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, she probably doesn’t. In fact, I’m probably the only runner who does and really need to work on changing that. Unless I want to keep getting beat by girls (kidding!).
As she passed the entrance to the park I planned on entering and headed straight down the road, pride and ego told me if I made my planned turn into the park, I was giving up and letting her win. That if I just stayed trailing her, eventually she’d start to tire and I could turn the burners on and pass her. Humility allowed me to see how ridiculous I was being as I turned into the park and enjoyed the next three miles of my run in peace. Thank God for humility.
