Thursday, July 26, 2007

Being Fair to Ourselves

We have throughout our lives been taught to not praise ourselves. It is considered bragging, putting on airs, or just plain in bad taste. We can even remember sermons about it like "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."

Why is it considered bad?

Perhaps because in a lot of cases it is used to elevate one person over another as if in some way it is proof of their feeling of superiority. When used this way we would probably agree that it has a negative connotation and we would consider it in poor taste or a destructive statement.

Can we argue that when we do something good and praiseworthy that we can at least acknowledge to ourselves. Not in a vain way but as a recognition that we do good things as well as they bad things which we are so quick to point out to ourselves.

When we only recognize the things we do wrong we are out of balance and lose our perspective. If we only focus on the negative then we are not being fair to ourselves. After all we we see others as a mix of good and bad actions and accept them when the good outweighs the bad.

Can we do no less for ourselves.

Your thoughts?

6 conversations:

Sandee said...

"Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Now my husband and I have said this phrase about a few we have seen in the community that thought they were above everyone. They fell. It was during our working years mostly. Interesting that you use a phrase so near and dear to the both of us.

Well, it is much easier to beat ourselves up I suppose. I would rather do that then have the phrase apply to me, but I see your point here. I need to feel good about the good things I do and give myself a job well done pat. I do it for everyone around me all the time. Going to be tough because it's not me. Thanks for letting me know it's okay though. Have a great evening my friend. :)

Peter Haslam said...

I have the same problem Sandee and need to remind myself to keep balance

Samantha & Mom said...

Hi Peter, this is Chandra, Samantha & Tigger and we just wanted to tell you we nominated you for the schmooze award. Please come by our blog to check it out. We love your blog.
Your FL furiends,

Peter Haslam said...

Cleo and I thank you and will be over.

Elizabeth Abbot said...

It is certainly easier to tell someone else what a great job they have done than to do the same for yourself. Maybe we should all finish the day by choosing one great thing we did that day and say to ourselves, good job.

Peter Haslam said...

Good idea Elizabeth as we need to balance the good we do against the negative we are so ready to assign to ourselves