As I mentioned at the end of my previous blog entry on motivating youth, which I’m sorry to say was quite a while ago, I said that I would next time talk about having a support team of some sort when proceeding with your goals. However, recently I realized that there is a more urgent topic that I should take the time to address first: The topic of arrogance.
For those who don’t know, arrogance is a fancy word for a state of mind when a person is way too full of themselves. These are the kind of people who have a tendency to talk and think only about themselves, they think that they are the most important things on earth and that everything they say or do, no matter how mediocre it may be, is pure gold.
This has a tendency to happen to people as they become successful in what they are doing and I saw quite an example of one recently from the world of adolescence. If I could and if I would, this is what I would say to that individual:
“Dude, chill out with that nonsense! You are 16-years-old! Your voice permanently dropped a few pitches within recent years! What have you done in the under two decades you’ve been on this earth that gives you the right to flounce around like that?”
I see this happen all the time with kids. It is a common occurrence both in the local community and in the mainstream media. In fact, when I heard that Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber wrote and published autobiographies, both at the age of 16, I saw this as the biggest sign of arrogance of all. How can you possibly write about your life at 16-years-old??
An outcome I see from this recurring behavior is that people tend to stop learning. They stop taking advice on how to improve in whatever it is they are doing and they no longer make the effort to better themselves. As a result, they become less relevant in society and their walkway in life until all that’s left is their self-obsessed personality.
The trick to being admired and respected for not only your occupation but as an overall human being is to stay humble. While I can understand that for some people it’s hard to do, trust me; it’s a better, more stable mindset to maintain yourself in.
Not only will it do wonders for your self image, but it will also keep you open-minded to possibilities on how to improve yourself as you go about your pursuits. Love what you are doing and keep working towards getting better at it in any way you can.
At the same time though, there is also such thing as being too humble. You could just as well not bother to admit a big accomplishment in your life that could benefit you with getting into a certain school, a job or something of the sort. There could be someone who could take credit for something you already did and you don’t bother to say anything about it.
I guess what I’m trying to get at is to maintain a balance. While it’s wonderful to acknowledge your accomplishments, don’t do it so often that you become a close-minded, arrogant person. Same for maintaining a humble personality; it’s good some of the time, but not all of the time.
For the sake of my target audience of young people, I encourage you to embrace this advice as you go forward in life. Go for your dreams in life and aim high, but for the sake of it all, please do not start outlining your autobiography if you haven’t even received a high school diploma yet.
