PATRICK VIEW : MISCONCEPTION ABOUT PRIDE — POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SIDE

Good morning, everybody!

Pride!                         Pride!!                           Pride!!!

I feel like this can often conflict with what we are taught in society these days. Society tells us to have pride in our work, pride in our actions, and pride in our nation, pride in our kids, and pride in our achievements.

After much reading, I was able to get a concrete view about pride.

According to Wikipedia definition:

Pride is an inwardly directed emotional term that carries two (antithetical) meanings. 

1. With a negative connotation- Pride refers to a foolishly and irrationally corrupt sense of one’s personal value, status or accomplishments,used synonymously with hubris. In Judaism, pride is called the root of all evil.

A negative connotation of pride may look like this:

“”” when you are proud in your work, how will you be humble enough to try to improve? If you’re proud in your achievements, what is truly the motivation behind your actions?

If you’re prideful in your nation, how do you know if problems are arising, or not being solved?

Pride makes our hearts dull. It closes our ears to that conscience, and shuts our eyes against what is right. Swallowing that pride is what we need to do.”””

2. With a positive connotation- Pride refers to a humble and content sense of attachment toward one’s own or another’s choices and actions, or toward a whole group of people, and is a product of praise, independent self-reflection, and a fulfilled feeling of belonging.

A positive connotation of pride may look like this:

While in college, as there is so much competition among peers, I’ve found myself taking pride in my own accomplishments, too. But, pride is blinding. We should take pride in our work, pride in our actions, and pride in our nation, pride in our kids, and pride in our achievement.

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SIDE OF PRIDE

What I notice are the flaws in our pride when they are misplaced. So how do we go about distinguishing positive side of  Pride from negative side of  Pride?

POSITIVE  SIDE OF PRIDE 

• You worked hard towards a goal and accomplished your goals.
• Using pride to maintain a certain standard in the things you do.
• You are proud of who you have become.
• Not comparing oneself advantageously (and frequently unfairly) to others.
• Authentic. It’s an accurate, realistic estimate of one’s abilities.
• Those with healthy pride motivate and inspire others to take their lead and join them. 

NEGATIVE SIDE OF PRIDE-

• •  Letting you or your family/friends suffer because you do not want the help.
  • Using pride to put others down.
  • Measuring our achievements against someone else vs. our own previous performances.
  • Regularly bragging about their (often exaggerated) accomplishments.
  • Distorted claims about one’s capacities.
  • Call their-self “lord”  over others. They don’t want to share their successes, but rather do everything possible to make certain no one “trespasses” on them

Finally, misconception of Pride has to be noted, so we need to understand all this things.

Just a food for thought for this week.

If you could relate to this post and think others you know might also, please consider forwarding them its link.

I will like to ask a simple question  for my fellow readers and viewers.

1. 1. What is your own views and contributions on this articles?
   2. What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘pride’?
   3. Are you a proud person?
   4. What achievement are you most proud of?
   5. Who are you most proud of?
   6. What do you take great pride in doing?
   7. When was the last time you were very proud of yourself?

1. Do you think you were always a source of great pride for your parents?
2. Do you think carefully about your actions to maintain your family pride?
3. What do you do to restore your pride after it has been wounded?
4. Do I know when my pride creeps up in my conversation? When am I most vulnerable to talk too much about myself?
5. Do I have a sensible assessment of who I am? What are my gifts, skills, abilities and contributions to people around? How can I rethink  and transform my language to be less about me and more about others?
6. Can I reduce my use of I, me, my and mine in conversations with man?

Please let me know all your reactions and insights in the comments below!

 Written by:

Kogwuonye Patrick Onyeka

Writer/Blogger/Educator/Tutor

University of Benin

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