Thursday, April 2, 2015

Arrogance, Inspiration, Insult and Impressed

My self confidence has toppled over into arrogance again recently.  I was insulted when someone I only know in passing started to say they were impressed with some ideas I had gathered from others, added some of my own, then put into a succinct presentation.  I told myself I was upset because what I wanted to accomplish was to inspire them to put some of the ideas into action, not to be impressed with my writing skills.

There was a time when I would have let the person finish and bask in the compliments because I had very little confidence in my ability to put ideas down in a clear, readable fashion or, if my self esteem was particularly low, deflect it with a modest comment.  Now, I need to stuff that arrogance back in the box and practice humility again before that arrogance turns into self-entitlement.