Be Humble, But Never Forget Your Power

I released a blog post a few days ago about the topic of being a man and what it means to me. It included a list of ten points that I believe make a man a real man. Some of the points that I included were; placing truth above all, surrendering to a higher power, and creating a sense of purpose in his life.

I posted the link to one of my social media pages, to which someone made a comment about how important it is to be humble as a man. To a degree, I agreed with him. If I were to add some more points to the blog post, I would probably add that a man needs to have a level of humility about himself so as to not become to grandiose and cocky, and have one of those ‘I know best’ kind of attitudes that limits his own learning and development.

On the flipside, however, my mind was immediately transported back to times throughout my teenage years and early adulthood when my humility would severely limit me. My ‘humility’ was really a disguise for the lack of confidence and belief that I had in myself and my own abilities. My ‘humility’ was really me playing the role of a God-fearing humble man that kept me playing small.

Instead of stepping into my own, sovereign power, and owning the things that I was good at, I would hide in the corner of the room and allow other people to step into the light and show their own talents off to the world when the time came.

I never wanted to be seen by others as cocky, brash and over zealous. Rather than acting from a place of personal truth and authenticity, doing things that I truly believed in, I was acting in ways that would control peoples perceptions of me.

I can’t blame myself for or be ashamed by my early actions, I simply didn’t understand myself well enough or know my place within the world. I hadn’t truly ‘owned’ my own gifts.

Like everything in life, there is a balance, and being too humble might just limit a man, in the same way that overconfidence in his abilities and cockiness might lead him to a place of grandiosity, and, too, become limiting. Both ends of the balance come from a place of inauthenticity. One might, perhaps, be trying to control peoples perceptions and narratives, or he could be seeking to gain approval and validation in some way to make up for the lack of belief that he has in himself.

A man who truly knows himself is only concerned with his own validation of himself. He seeks not the approval of other men because he knows his place in the world. He knows why he is alive, and he is conscious of why he is doing anything in any given moment. If he is being led by truth, then why wouldn’t he step out from the shadows and allow himself to be seen in the light of who he is with his gifts and talents on show for the world to see and, perhaps, even judge?

Yes, humility, is a beautiful trait, but so is a man who truly knows himself, has owned his own talents and reclaimed his sovereignty and power; a man who has a true, authentic, inner confidence, and isn’t afraid to stand up and show his skills and talents off to the world with the right purpose in mind when the time comes for him to shine.

Perhaps, in the name of humility, you, too, have been taught to unconsciously suppress yourself, to hide your gifts, and to stop yourself from shining your light into the world.

What the world needs now, more than ever, however, is a world of men that have owned their own gifts, know their power, and aren’t afraid to step out into the light with true, inner confidence; to lead, protect, and to serve the highest purpose.