Here at Make Me A Plan HQ, we are fascinated by emotional triggers. Exploring what makes humans do what they do, feel what they feel, think what they think, forms an integral part of the suite of plans for individuals and coaching services we offer.

One of the strongest emotional responses, in our humble opinion (see what we did there), is pride. Whether you consider it the poor cousin, or dominant master, of those more frequently-cited impostors, love and hate, pride nonetheless most likely plays a compelling role in your life.

Grasping the balance between pride & humility is one of life’s ongoing challenges, and goodness only knows that in this age of 24/7/365 compulsion to be available, on the ball, all things to all people, you may well be thinking that that this is one area where you haven’t got the time or volition to care about being out of equilibrium.

The good news is, there are some simple and enjoyable techniques, brought to you courtesy of Make Me A Plan, to help you understand and manage the relationship between pride & humility to your best advantage.

We’ve worked these in to some activities to bring the learning to life – enjoy.

Pride & Humility Pic n Mix

Pride in your appearance

Looking good often makes us feel good and if that’s your bag, enjoy that favourite jacket, fragrance or pair of shoes that gives you that hold your head high, proud feeling.

BUT, if the pressure to take pride in your appearance (either self-imposed or from peer or media influences) is stressing you out, take back control with this humility counterbalance:

54321 to balance

Jot down:

5 people who care about you

4 things that are more important than your appearance (you can use big-ticket things like child poverty to snap you out of the negative feelings, or smaller, more personalised options)

3 occasions where you did feel pride in your appearance

2 things you will commit to enjoy today

1 person you care about that you’re going to make a quick call or send a message to today

Pride in your performance

Humans are hard-wired to take pride in what they do – whether this is at work, at home, in hobbies. We all take pleasure in doing a good job, completing a task well, producing something of quality. There is, of course, nothing wrong with this! It only becomes a problem when goals become all-consuming or supersede getting enjoyment out of the activity.

Here’s the Make Me A Plan prescription for when that occurs – and the good news is it’s incredibly easy to map out!:

All the AAs

Write down all the things you like about the task/role/activity.

Write down all the things that you dislike about the task/role/activity.

Adjust Accordingly.

Pride in your relationships

We think, therefore we are and we are set up to be social animals, so they say. We want to be liked and we are proud of our friendships or relationships formed, and family members and their achievements. If these relationships are proving challenging or you don’t feel pride about some of them right now – you’re not alone. Our final humility helper is as follows:

Tempus fugit (time passes)

Draw 3 circles on a piece of paper. Label one TODAY, one THIS WEEK and one THIS MONTH. Jot down one thing for each that you can do, that will improve the relationship that is troubling you. Small things equal big wins so make sure these are achievable and enjoy the flicker of a smile creeping back when you accomplish them.

And then, draw some more circles next month!

I’ll be musing On Fairness next fortnight – get in touch with any particular aspects of that topic you’d like me to write about.

Happy Planning.