Humility is one of the personal characteristics that has been most valued and praised historically. However, in practice humble people are not what predominates in our society.
In this article We will see what are the typical characteristics of humble people that help us recognize them through their actions and attitudes.
Virtually all nations have stories that tell the lives of humble and hard-working people who strive to improve some aspect of society, even if they exaggerate to do so. In any case, it is clear that it is a value that is usually promoted to try to get everyone infected with it.
However, humble people are not the norm, but the exception; Most people do not stand out in this characteristic, in the same way that the majority are not characterized by being the opposite, narcissistic and conceited.
Opting for humility provides positive advantages for society, but for those who practice this habit It is not always a behavioral dynamic that brings personal benefits ; This depends a lot on the context.
Partly for this, and because in a culture dominated by individualism and the logic of personal marketing, communicating is more selling than doing something worth communicating, humble people are not the most common, although they are not absolutely rare either. Let’s see then what are the personality characteristics that help us recognize them.
Humble people are aware that most situations in life, unless they are part of a privileged minority, require hard work to be able to live with dignity and help others do the same.
That’s why, They value very positively the value of effort and hard work and they certainly do not make fun of those who decide to sacrifice various aspects of their daily lives to promote ambitious and difficult projects (a complicated university degree, a very specialized professional career in which many people compete, etc.).
2. They do not find pleasure in surpassing others
A humble person does not have to completely reject situations in which one participates in a competitive dynamic, such as, for example, in competitive examinations or in a project competition to receive a scholarship.
However, he also does not experience pleasure in the experience of surpassing a person or group in something, since Your self-esteem does not depend on obsessive comparisons with others
That is, they do not get emotionally involved in the competition itself, but rather in the development of a quality product that, as a consequence, can help them stand out in a competition. If anything, you find motivation in improving yourself, going beyond what you thought you couldn’t do.
3. They can tolerate lack of attention better
Humble people can be both introverted and extroverted (that is, more or less inclined towards introspection, on the one hand, or the search for external stimuli, on the other), but in any case they resent less the experience of not receiving a lot of attention from others.
This is relative, given that everyone needs to be recognized by their peers, but as These types of people do not feel the need to constantly receive validation from third parties a certain loneliness in this aspect does not cause them so much discomfort.
4. They give in less to prejudices
It is practically impossible not to have ever fallen into a prejudice, but humble people have it easier because they spontaneously They rarely find reasons to value other people negatively without having a concrete and rational reason for doing so
For example, a humble person is less likely to make negative judgments about the fact that another individual has little money, since classism is unjustified.
5. They give relative importance to their virtues
Humble people do not have inflated self-esteem, among other things because although their ability to put effort into something can make them stand out, that for them does not define their entire global value as human beings.
Where others would believe that they are above others because they are elite athletes or recognized authorities in some academic field, humble people simply see what is there: a skill that they are good at, combined with external factors that they are not. they can completely control: luck, the help of others, etc. However, This should not be confused with low self-esteem which occurs when there is a tendency to assume that everything bad is one’s own responsibility and everything good is due to death.
