We have been in a mini 3-part series discussing relationship building. First, we identified that listening is the most important skill in building relationships, whether business or personal. Last time, we discussed that selfishness destroys a relationship while selflessness grows it. Today, we’ll continue to answer the question, what else tears down a relationship?
Pride! Pride destroys relationships. It shows up in a lot of different forms, like criticism, competition, stubbornness, and superficiality.
The problem with pride is that it’s self-deceiving. When you have too much pride, you don’t see it in your life—but everyone else does!
As a proverb says, “Pride leads to destruction; a proud attitude brings ruin.” Let me say it in a different way, “First pride, then the crash—the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.”
While pride destroys relationships, humility serves as its antidote, building relationships instead. To combat pride by choosing humility means “Be humble and give more honor to others than to yourselves.” Let me give you a bit more detail: “Everyone must live in harmony, be sympathetic, love each other, have compassion, and be humble.”
So, how do you grow in humility? You’ll need to change your thoughts, heart, attitude, and reactions. Changing your way of thinking will make you into a new person.
You also need to understand the basic law of relationships. And that is: you tend to become like the people you spend time with. If you spend time with grumpy people, you get grumpier. If you spend time with happy people, you get happier. If you want to become a new, humbler person, you need to spend time with humble people.
That humility, in turn, builds your relationships.
To put that into practice, let me ask you some questions:
- What are some of the common characteristics and habits of the humble people in your life?
- What does it look like to give more honor to others than to yourself?
Tell me your answers or share with me your experience by commenting below. I’d love to hear from you.