Monday, August 3, 2009
Pride and its consequences
Pride is a strange multi-dimensional 'thing'. My experience of pride is that it can and has stopped me from harnessing resources available to me, resources that could significantly improve my reality. What follows is one example where too much pride can be detrimental ...
As we pass through life we meet many people along the way. Each person that I interact with is left with an impression of me and vice versa. I will never really know how the person has experienced me. Some may have met me while I was wearing my party hat while others met me while I was wearing my IT hat. Some may have known me while I was jetting off to various parts of the globe, i.e. my jetsetter hat.
Today I decide I would like to make a career transition. So I start browsing the job ads. I meet with a few employment agencies and also speak with some friends and existing colleagues about my career aspirations, i.e. I network. However, there is a dormant part of my network that I do not access because my pride stops me. These are people from my past. People who may have known me while I was wearing a different career hat. People that could possibly assist me with realizing my career goals. But pride stops me. Pride tells me that I would embarras myself if I contacted Joe or Susan or John. Pride says to me that I will be humiliated. Pride disconnects me from parts of my network. Pride controls me. Pride tells me that my fragile reputation will be tarnished if I pick up the phone.
It's at times like this that it can be very useful to pocket my pride so that I can harness/harvest my latent resources. It may mean embarrasing myself. It may not. I won't know unless I give it a shot.
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