Pride

Someone recently told me that pride is always a bad thing, and that it would be a good idea to remove one’s pride completely. That got me thinking, what do you replace pride with? I think I have an answer.

First, I will admit that pride had always been a tool of motivation for me. Whenever I did something, in one way or another, I was doing it to make myself (or others) proud. Whenever I performed any task in school, or in work, or in a hobby, I did a better job because I thought that the good outcome would make someone proud. I guess, I also liked the respect that comes when you do something that you can be proud of. I think, I got a lot of respect throughout my life because of this, and that felt nice.

But pride also caused me to do some not-so-good things. It caused me to be ashamed, at times, out of fear for being wrong or looking weak. It caused me to be dishonest, sometimes. It caused me to keep things from people, even if I didn’t have to lie to do so. It caused me to exalt myself, in my own mind–maybe even in front of others. Maybe it even caused me to put other people down. Not good.

So, I thought about this, and I could start to see how pride might always be a bad thing. But could it be a good thing, sometimes? Maybe. Regardless, I have a new goal, which is to push aside my pride completely. It’s not easy.

Now, what do I replace it with? What tool of motivation will I use? How will I push myself to always do a excellent job? What would be even better than pride?

To start answering this question, I could look at all the bad consequences that I listed above and think, what would be the antidote to these kinds of problems?

The answer that I found (so far) is that I should replace my pride with a simple concept: do the right thing. Do the right thing, not because it makes me, or anyone proud, but because it is the moral thing to do. Of course, this begs the question, what is the right, or moral, thing? I believe there is an objective truth and a supreme set of morals out there for me to find. Among these: make other people happy, be honest to them, exalt them (and not myself), do things for them (just like I would for myself), and don’t be ashamed to do so. If I do the right thing, there is nothing to be ashamed about!

In short, I should do things not because they make me feel proud, but because they are the right things to do.