Sacrificing self-pride for self-improvement

America is known as a nation of individuals. We are independent persons and owe each of our successes to no one but ourselves. We are proud of our accomplishments and rightly so. However, independence also means bearing the responsibility for all of our failures, which can occasionally be too much to manage.

I’m a proud person. I must consent. Whether or not I actually have something to be proud of – that’s another question entirely. Nevertheless, my values can be a little off at times, and I’m not the only one. For example, I have the serious problem of not doing an assignment and end up turning it in late, or more frequently not at all, because it’s not perfect. More broadly and more dangerous still, is my refusal to accept help with something on which I’m struggling because that would mean admitting my shortcomings. Furthermore, most of us can identify our flaws and mistakes, but we don’t do anything about rectifying them because that would mean acknowledging that we aren’t the perfect independent individual that society, no, not society, that each of us as individuals expect ourselves to be.

I realize that this does not apply to everyone. Some people are legitimately lazy, but more often than not we deceive ourselves into believing that we are apathetic because we are the exact opposite. What’s more, if we think we are something for long enough, we have the high potential to embody that trait. So, what can we do to alleviate our hubris and rectify our wrongs? We can ask for help.