As I deny me, I deny others… how selfish can I be. -RJ-

Humbleness is a quality of being modest or unpretentious. Your humbleness is what keeps you from bragging about yourself; you ability, you plus points, your talent. -urban dictionary-

True humbleness is characterised by humility and a certain quietness or reservation. Showing off, exaggerating our accomplishments, and refusing to listen to other people’s advice and opinions are all the opposite of humbleness. Sometimes it is also used to mean an ordinary or lowly state: “The humbleness of her upbringing made paying for college a struggle.” I has a levelling down or neutralising effect.

Based on common wisdom plus the official dictionary definition, we treat humbleness as a virtue ad rightly so. We strive to be humble, we remind ourself to stay humble, we admire humbleness and we even instil humbleness to our children. The opposite is true too. We despise people showing off and arrogance. We find it distasteful to be saying about our accomplishments even. So, we shy away from doing so. I reprimand ourself if he realised we are not being humble. We frown on anything that is opposite to humbleness.

Herein lies the slippery slope that brings us to selfishness which we are unaware creeps in as we practice humbleness to a fault. As we carry this desire to be humble, we inadvertently start denying our greatness for fear the acknowledgement in itself is an act of arrogance. Once we do this, we lose sight of what we possess that can be of contribution to others. Self doubting if we are ever good at anything, worthy of anything to give to others creeps in until a point where we hide our gems. We become a recluse to our own greatness thus robbing the world and humanity a piece of our contribution. I that light, we become selfish in the most ‘humble’ of ways!

Don’t get me wrong. It is great to be humble. I dread the result of a person devoid of humbleness. The same is true for a person whose humbleness is carried to an extreme where reality and pride disappears.

So what is the answer to this? Unfortunately (or is it fortunately) there is no answer that will satisfy us even though we know it is a balancing act. Or maybe that is the answer; A Balancing Act.

Humbleness mixed with reality and a pinch of self-pride. Sounds like a recipe worth trying.