Humility and Confidence
I am wondering if a bit more humility would give me a bit more confidence.
There are lots of kinds of confidence, and if they come from the wrong place, they are actually arrogance in a creepy mustache. I don't want a mustache. But I also don't want to get walked on.
"Knowing who we are" is the key to both humility and confidence, but "who we are" is really, really complicated - like, we're lots of things, and how are we to know what bit of ourselves is relevant in any particular situation? We are divine offspring. We are fallen, and imperfect, and consistently short-sighted. We are tired, broken versions of the cheerful, perfect little children we used to be. We are growing into our inheritance. We possess agency in vast amounts. We must surrender our will. We are physical beings, full of exciting passions and drives. We are finite beings functioning in a maze of eternal and temporal laws with persistent consequences.
If you need confidence, remember that you are a valued child of Heavenly Father.
If you need humility, remember that you are a sinner, and helpless to save your own soul.
As if my brain does that.
But what if I could remember all the humbling things about me, and use them to find confidence? What would that look like?
It would probably look a lot like that time I embarrassed my little sister by talking to strangers in the elevator. If you're not grasping some kind of artificial dignity, then you can just be who you are. Who cares if you look silly? We're all just making this up as we go, right?
I am already a failure. A spectacular, glowing failure. I am the Chernobyl of Academia (hubris is a whole new kind of arrogance. *shrug*). Do I get any license now? I'm taking it all the same.
There are lots of kinds of confidence, and if they come from the wrong place, they are actually arrogance in a creepy mustache. I don't want a mustache. But I also don't want to get walked on.
"Knowing who we are" is the key to both humility and confidence, but "who we are" is really, really complicated - like, we're lots of things, and how are we to know what bit of ourselves is relevant in any particular situation? We are divine offspring. We are fallen, and imperfect, and consistently short-sighted. We are tired, broken versions of the cheerful, perfect little children we used to be. We are growing into our inheritance. We possess agency in vast amounts. We must surrender our will. We are physical beings, full of exciting passions and drives. We are finite beings functioning in a maze of eternal and temporal laws with persistent consequences.
If you need confidence, remember that you are a valued child of Heavenly Father.
If you need humility, remember that you are a sinner, and helpless to save your own soul.
As if my brain does that.
But what if I could remember all the humbling things about me, and use them to find confidence? What would that look like?
It would probably look a lot like that time I embarrassed my little sister by talking to strangers in the elevator. If you're not grasping some kind of artificial dignity, then you can just be who you are. Who cares if you look silly? We're all just making this up as we go, right?
I am already a failure. A spectacular, glowing failure. I am the Chernobyl of Academia (hubris is a whole new kind of arrogance. *shrug*). Do I get any license now? I'm taking it all the same.
I disagree that you are a failure. You may have failed one or two things in the past little while, but look where you are. Most people do not get as far. Be realistic. Because Mitt Romney lost the 2012 election, does that make him a failure? Egads, child, use your brain and correct your thinking!
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