It’s cool to be humble.

The concept of humility is often misunderstood when people confuse humility with humiliation. None of us want to be humiliated and feel embarrassed or ashamed of ourselves, and with humility, it’s impossible to do that.

To me, humility is the realization that we’re not everything. We’re just everything we need to be. We’re not the big picture. We’re a part of the big picture—and an integral one. With us, the world is better. Without us, the world keeps on turning.

Humility allows for peace in knowing that not everyone is thinking about you and 99.999% of the time their actions have nothing to do with you. Believe it or not, just like you, people are generally just obsessing about themselves. They don’t really care what your hair looks like or what you got on your last geometry test.

And while we’re at it, this is important to note, too: people don’t do things to you. They do things that affect you, but they’re usually not trying to hurt you. They’re trying to feel better themselves.

There’s a phrase that’s used in Alcoholics Anonymous, and it gets this so right. It says, Humility is not thinking less about myself. It is thinking about myself less.

Be humble. Think about yourself less. Think more about how you can use your gifts to make others feel better. There’s nothing cooler than that.

Graphics by Shyanne Trutwein.