Photo: _marmota / Flickr

For children and parents alike, staying humble when you’re extremely good at something is very difficult. There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and never treading over into the latter is a worthwhile character pursuit.

Always challenge yourself, not others

When you’re clearly the best at work, or in school, or in the world at any one activity, there is no longer any value in challenging other people. The reason for this is that the gap in ability may be so large that your performance may actually decline as all you try to do is best other people and play one-upmanship with them. Staying humble requires you make improving a personal pursuit, so you should instead challenge yourself. This way you’re not posturing for other people, but rather pushing your own limits.

Try new activities

Humility is built off the realisation that you’re not the best at everything, and therefore aren’t superior to any other person. Yes, you may be the best swimmer in your school, but that doesn’t make you a superior polo skater, artist or musician.

A simple technique for reinforcing humility when you fear you may be getting a little big-headed – a legitimate fear for many people – is to always participate in activities that you’re unfamiliar with. Learning a new, unconventional sport like badminton or snowboarding, for example, is a great way to remind yourself that everybody has to start somewhere, which translates to ‘we all suck at everything’ at one point. And nothing separates confidence and arrogance more than falling on your bum.

Be conscious

Staying humble also requires a great deal of self-reflection. Be conscious of the way you treat other people, the things you say and the way you carry yourself. Confidence and arrogance are separated by being aware of your ability and over-estimating your ability.

Be mindful of how you treat others and you will be respected for both your accomplishments and your character.

Tags: children, confidence, Parenting