It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance. – Thomas Sowell
When I came face-to-face with the level and the scope of my ignorance, I felt the sting of shame that shook me to my core. I felt so stupid, including my beliefs about myself independent of whether they are true or not. I began to listen to my inner dialog. The inner voices were mean, hateful, shaming, condemnation- overload.
I asked myself where did that attitude of superiority come from. I found out that behaving in superior ways often belies a deeper sense of (real or imagined) inadequacy or inferiority.
A superiority complex involves exaggerated beliefs about one’s own achievements or abilities. A person may show this by being boastful, vain, or unwilling to listen to others. A superiority complex is often a defense mechanism to mask or hide a person’s true feelings of inferiority.
The desire for superiority is the part of pride that C.S. Lewis considers most toxic to your virtue, as surrendering to God requires recognition of your inferiority when faced with the divine.
FIRST THINGS FIRST: You are not stupid.
Bob Dylan once said, “Don’t criticize if you don’t understand.”
Stop that critical voice in your head.
Thus began the list of positively formulated goals. Doable goals that define and motivate our focus whether we make an effort to maintain as part of me.
Self-development is a hard work of a lifetime. We work on one aspect of our character or our nature then take a rest. We go play then rest. We go work and rest. We study and rest. Life happens in between work and play and rest. Things happen in variables. Okay girl, it’s time to grow! Growing up is pretty much creating the new you. Jesus said “Born again”… I think it means recreating yourself as a beloved child of God. It’s not how I see myself but how God sees me.