Does Humility Hold Us Back?
Is there a point where humility becomes a limiting factor in your Pursuit?
There certainly is a point where confidence can turn into arrogance and detract from your Pursuit, but are we missing an opportunity to maximize the power of confidence and self-belief in order to remain humble?
I think many of us are.
And we’re doing so with good intentions—we seek to remain humble because that’s what we’ve been taught since a young age and we know what arrogance looks like and it’s not how we want to be seen, so we keep our confidence and self-belief in check.
It’s how we keep our confidence and self-belief from tipping into arrogance that is the problem.
“The subconscious mind will translate into reality a thought driven by FEAR just as readily as it will translate into reality a thought driven by COURAGE or FAITH.”
-Napoleon Hill
It was this quote from Napoleon Hill’s Think And Grow Rich that led me to question how I frame my goals, strengths, and communicate my authentic life to others. I’ve always been confident and I’d like to think that I have avoided becoming arrogant in my confidence, but despite the belief I have in my Self, I often walk back my ambitious goals by adding a disclaimer or downplaying my belief that I will actually reach the goal—I even do this in my own mind.
And THAT is where humility begins to become a limiting factor in my Pursuit and it might be doing the same thing in yours.
I’ll give you a quick example, which will hopefully help you identify where your humility might be sabotaging your Pursuit:
There is a space that exists that sits between two very well-known individuals—Jay Shetty and Ramit Sethi. This space is the intersection of spirituality and finance; Jay Shetty brings spirituality (spirit, mind, and body) to his audience but rarely talks about finance. Ramit brings finance (money) to his audience but rarely talks about spirituality, the law of attraction, the impact of mindset on money, and other important factors I consider to be spiritual in nature.
I’m sure there are others out there connecting the two and filling the space between Jay and Ramit but that void is where I’m going—and because that void sits between two people you’d consider “famous”, I often reduce my ambition and goal to one day sit at the same table as those two. So I add a disclaimer about not being sure if I actually want to get to that level or share my fear about what might happen if I did ascend to that level of notoriety.
Just writing this and knowing I’m going to be sharing it this morning makes me a little uneasy.
The truth is I do believe I am the person to connect spirit, mind, body, and money and that my message can help people the way Jay Shetty and Ramit Sethi have helped hundreds of thousands of people—if not millions. I honestly don’t care if I reach the level of followers they have, command the speaking fees they receive, or become famous….but I should not limit my Self from ascending there if that is what the Universe has in store for me.
Right now, my message will never reach the people it’s supposed to reach and I’m limiting my impact because of my own doing through humility—it’s not humble to say that one day my message will reach and inspire millions of people across the world.
And it never will…but I’m working on it.
As Napoleon Hill explained, my disclaiming and minimizing thoughts are being received and processed by my subconscious mind, and until I get rid of them they will act as a ceiling for me.
That’s how humility is holding me back—how far it’s holding me back I don’t know and it doesn’t matter. I know my message and impact will be limited as long as I downplay what I’m pursuing, and I’m working on being more intentional with my words, catching and shutting down the limiting thoughts when they creep up, and not being afraid of what is to come with my Pursuit.
So…
What ambitious goals do you have in your life that you minimize to your Self and others because your humility won’t allow you to own the greatness of the goal?
Are there other ways beyond your words and thoughts that keep you from reaching the full potential of your Pursuit?
See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,
JC
