Humility

“Humility is limiting oneself to an appropriate amount of space whilst leaving space for others. This space can be physical, emotional, verbal, or even metaphorical.”

This is a truly serious statement which begs for contemplation. In our modern meme world where everyone is out to claim, and even go to war for their space, one needs to meditate on how this is manifested in your immediate environment.

Commercial enterprises refer to and are constantly on about its environmental footprint. Have you thought about your personal footprint?  I do – often …

Let’s just skip the philosophical elements of the topic for a moment and ground everyone’s immediate thoughts with some practicalities.

Some examples of claiming space:

• When you “double park” your car/bakkie half/half over two parking bays
• Groceries shopping – one half of your trolley takes up half of the isle while you occupy the rest of the space next to it
• Wrenching open and shutting doors/drawers instead of opening and closing it
• Making a mess of your immediate (office/room) space and then expecting someone else to clean up
• Driving across white lines to pass where you should not or, because you are on your darn cell phone and not paying attention
• Sitting at a traffic light with your sound system loud enough to entertain a full Loftus stadium
• Having an office all to yourself while it can in fact comfortably accommodate 5 more people
• And one that will tip the apple cart (for the best). There is a school of thought  suggesting that the owner/MD/CEO of any company not earn more than 7x that of the lowest paid employee

I think you get the picture. The list is absolutely endless and we are all guilty of claiming more than what is appropriate.

Are you thinking about how you claim your space? I am …

How about the space you claim by verbally abusing people – employees, family and the rest?

Is your claim legitimate? Sometimes it may well be, but if you carefully and with intention investigates this question; more often than not your claim may actually be illegitimate.

A friend of mine always says: “never argue, quarrel or fight”. If the situation requires you to state your point or position, do it with dignity and respect. Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but if you insist yours to be the one and only way – you are in trouble – your claim to this space, may be invalid and driven by fear.

Life is not as complicated as we make it out to be. Simplify and limit your occupation of space to what is appropriate and legitimate.

“Being humble doesn’t mean being a nobody - it just means being no more of a somebody than you ought to be” – A Morinis

Nuff said …

© Matthys Ferreira