Overcome Your Pride and Ask for Forgiveness
Overcoming your pride can be very difficult sometimes because you might think it means losing your dignity and subjugating yourself. Far from that, however, it actually strengthens your relationships. Relationships, whether it’s a partner, family, work, or a friendship, require a lot of honesty to recognize when you have made a mistake. That’s when you should ask for forgiveness, overcome your pride, and show what true repentance is.
See: 5 steps to change prideful ways
Plenty of people can ask for forgiveness without really meaning it. In the end, they’re not actually learning from their mistakes. This is not the way to overcome your pride and truly apologize.
To overcome your pride, accept that you’re not perfect
It’s a mature thing to recognize, however.
Everyone has an image of themselves that’s a little blurred, based on reality. This could be because society urges us to be perfect, when that’s actually impossible.
Recognizing that you are wrong, that you make mistakes, and that you can apologize for them will help keep you grounded. Having a more realistic and less idealized image of yourself will improve your relationships.
Overcoming your pride when dealing with others can help you in other aspects of your life. You’ll have a much higher tolerance for mistakes at work, for example, as well as the criticism of others.
Have you ever been upset when someone pointed out something that you didn’t do well? It’s time to start accepting everything that you can learn about one aspect of your life and apply it to the others.
Become an observer
Observing your emotions when you ask for forgiveness can help you gain an understanding of why it’s difficult to overcome your pride. Perhaps you need to look toward your past.
What experiences have hurt you and caused you to feel like your dignity was injured as well? Although it might hurt to retrieve these from your memories, it’s important to do so. This will be key to understanding what’s happening to you now.
It’s also important that you observe your environment around you, in addition to yourself. Especially focus on the people you should apologize to.
Observing how others feel and how they react to you can help improve your empathy and allow you to remember a time when you felt like you were in their place.
Would you have wanted someone to ask you for forgiveness? Did someone take the opportunity to overcome their pride? The more you consider this, the more you will empathize and realize what you should do.
Don’t forget that pride makes you feel superior to other people, and that’s simply not the case.
If it’s difficult, practice it
For that reason, just like when you prepare for a test or a presentation, make a short script and practice it. Think about the words and phrases that would make you feel more comfortable.
The more familiar you get with these things, the less difficult it will be to actually put them into practice. Remember that you must do it, even if it’s hard!
Youse your time and concern to choose phrases and words that make you feel comfortable while still having meaning.
Before you leave do not miss: 8 lies happy people refuse to believe
Overcome your fears. Overcome the pride that’s preventing you from taking that next step, overcome the circumstances and your unconscious worry that the past will be repeated.
Pride can be a means of protecting ourselves, but don’t forget that relationships are at stake. Treating the people around you with kindness is part of being happy.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Bagozzi, R. P., Belschak, F., Verbeke, W., & Gavino, J. C. (2016). Salesperson self-regulation of pride: Effects on adaptability, effort, and citizenship behaviors between independent-based and interdependent-based cultures. Spanish Journal of Marketing – ESIC. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reimke.2016.01.002
- Villavicencio, F. T., & Bernardo, A. B. I. (2013). Positive academic emotions moderate the relationship between self-regulation and academic achievement. British Journal of Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8279.2012.02064.x
- Tracy, J. L., Cheng, J. T., Robins, R. W., & Trzesniewski, K. H. (2009). Authentic and hubristic pride: The affective core of self-esteem and narcissism. Self and Identity. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860802505053
- Cheng, J. T., Tracy, J. L., & Henrich, J. (2010). Pride, personality, and the evolutionary foundations of human social status. Evolution and Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.02.004
