By Olubunmi Adebayo
It is good to be promoted in life, as it is the joy of everyone to make progress.
But the moment the promoted becomes conceited about his promotion or success, then there are bound to be problems.
One of the challenges of success in life therefore, is for the successful to get to the point of becoming conceited with his achievement or position.
Becoming conceited means “having an excessive self – evaluation or opinion of one’s abilities, brilliance,appearance,success, beauty, position,etc, thereby making one egoistic”.
An egoistic person will always carry a fabulous impression about himself to the point of becoming irritable to others.
A man who is conceited and ego – driven will always operate in a world of his own, becoming blind to his self flaws, his environment, and prevailing situations.
In fact, if there are emerging challenges, the conceited, being in a world of his own, will never see such ahead of time, let alone proffering timely solutions to them.
The conceited as an ego driven individual, will end up in pride, and probably face the attendant consequences.
Pomposity is another challenge of the conceited. This is a feeling of self importance glaringly demonstrated in the public domain. Since such a person likes showing off in a big way, all manners of negative impressions cannot but surround him, for which he cares less.
In this psychological state, a conceited person will become easily deceived, desiring people’s praises and accolades about himself. In this emerging situation, achieving one’s full potential therefore, cannot but be difficult for the conceited.
What are the tips that can help the conceited person, or who suspects himself of conceitedness?
1) Learn to live a simple life. The simpler the life you live is, the farther you are from any form of conceitedness.
2) Learn to do your things quietly. Living a quiet life will shield you from public eyes and the temptation to show off. Conceitedness only shows off to prove a point to people around.
3) Be self-effacing in whatever you do. This you can do by not blowing your trumpet. And where your trumpet is being blown by others, be careful how you respond to such.
4) As much as possible, eschew and discourage people from giving praises and accolades to you : a good number of such praises are done with deceit behind their minds, or without good intentions : several givers of accolade while kneeling down to salute you,are actually standing up right in their heart of hearts : several of them condemning and cursing you outrightly.
5) Stop the crave to please specific people or audiences around you – it could be a major trigger for conceitedness in a person.
6) Be humble in success. Carry a mind that it is God Who has helped you thus far : Let all praises go to Him thereby, and not you.
7) Where you noticet that all the above tips are not helpful in your case, deliberately go before the Lord your God to help you out.
Your own case of conceitedness could be the channel through which the devil is out to limit your progress and success in life. In this case, nothing short of being outrightly reconciled to God, and prayers will help you.
