Humble

What does it mean to be humble? To be humble is to acknowledge the fact that we are human. As humans, we make mistakes, learn, fall and get up like everyone else.

We can assign value to the money we make, our intellect, our status, our rank in a field or sport, but these gloss over the existential aspects of humanity. It is our humanity which makes us common–equal in the metaphysical sense (having faculties, sense perception, consciousness, free will, etc.).

When we look at the world from a quantitive lens, it can be hard to be humble. Everyone has a different net worth. Everyone has different skills, different achievements, and different areas of expertise. As a result, a small percentage will be at the very top. If we create a graph from it, we will get a bell curve with many people normally distributed in the middle. When we judge each individual this way, it’s as if we become focused on where they rank.

But rank can change overtime. And rank doesn’t give a wholistic picture of the complexity of each individual. Rather, it gives us a picture of the data, but not the personalities behind them–the life behind them.

And that’s where humility comes in. To be humble, we recognize that there is a story behind each person in the graph. There is a struggle, a challenge to overcome, obstacles, setbacks, failures, victories, etc.

As such, just because someone might be successful in one area, it doesn’t mean they are in others. They might excel at their job and have various accomplishments and awards under their belt, but what about the other areas in their life? What about their shortcomings, or the multitude of things they have little to no knowledge in, little to no achievements in?

Thus, to be humble is to acknowledge this truth that is common to all of us. To quote Socrates, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”