why am i like this?

the power of humility

hum·ble

/ˈhəmbəl/

[adjective] Having or showing a modest or low estimate of one's own importance

Picture the most humble person you know. Like, actually picture them. Their little face in a physical space. Put them in a room in your head — a party, perhaps — and watch how they operate. They’re likely kind, gentle, and inquisitive. They have a calm confidence and comfort in their own skin.

AKA, they’re the best. Humility is so hot. The ability to estimate your importance in the world. Estimate is the golden word here. Humble people don’t know where they stack up with skill, privilege, luck — but their curiosity to learn about the world and people around them helps them craft educated guesses on where they land.

The end result of “being someone who is humble” is such a vibe, but to me — what’s I’m more enamored by is that this person underwent the act of becoming a humble person.

That’s the real thing.

How to humble yourself

It’s two-fold. There’s external humbling and inteneral humbling.

External humbling is about being open to both the possibility and reality of the world. When you’re open to entertaining the fact (FACT!!!) that there’s people better, prettier, funnier, richer, whatever-you-wanna-be-er than you, you take a huge step forward toward humility. But to seal the deal, you have to learn from them. Let yourself learn from them. What do they do better? Sure, differently, but allow yourself to soak in what they actually do better than you.

Right now, I have 3 tabs tabs open. First, a tab with the definition of humble, because I’m humble enough to know that a career as a writer doesn’t mean I can recite definitions off the dome. The other two tabs are websites built and ran by a copywriter I am jealous of admire. And although my ego literally combusts as I look at this guys’ work, I am forcing myself to. I want to be humbled. I want to learn. I want to get better.

💡 Find the people you have a talent-envy of admire and, after your eyes roll back in to place, challenge yourself to learn from them.

Internal humbling is weirdly simple.

You’d think that, after all this time in only our minds, we’d know everything there is to know. But we just don’t. Nothing is more humbling in my heart of hearts than learning how little I know about myself — or worse, how little I know that “myself” was born from “ourselves.”

Like, think about inspiration. I’ve been in creative meetings where I’ve pitched a thing and thought, “Wow. This is it. The moment me and everyone else realizes that I’m brilliant. SO fucking brilliant that this idea just bursted out my mouth and everyone’s jaw dropped and now I’m the smartest person in the world.”

2 hours later, I realize the idea wasn’t mine. I saw it on a thing, and put a silly little twist on it, without even knowing.

Internal humbling hurts, but it’s arguably more important. What you think about yourself is literally the only thing that matters. It builds the narrative in your head. It molds how you see yourself in the world. It moves your legs and arms and drives your car, literally and metaphorically.

And having a healthy, realistic view of how “great” we are — which is really great!! but also not the most complete/important/special person in the world!! — is real humility.

💡 Ask yourself the following question as often as possible: “Why am I like this?”

And that’ll do it

Love yall. Happy week. Go learn about yourself :)

Talk soon.

your friend,

taryn