Personal Identity: What Is Humility?

Filed Under Branding, Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 104 Comments

Can we talk about . . .

humility.

Once when I was about eight, I saw this sentence written in an open space on a church bulletin.

The funny thing about humility is the second you think you have it, you don’t.

Obviously that sentence stayed with me. I revisit it often. I still see it. The original had been typed on the master sheet by a manual typewriter. As I reflect on the image, the sentence itself looks humble compared to what we look at now.

This morning, Karin and I talked about the meaning of humility, which started me thinking again.

I reflect on one idea every time I encounter that word humility It’s been the same since the day I first saw that sentence.

We get ourselves into weird shapes and strange configurations chasing after humility.

Humility is the recluse star of the virtues. It starts with the same H as halo.

I can tell you what I know about humility. Then maybe you’ll tell me more. That would be useful, because the ellusiveness of humility means we know more about what it is not than we do about what it is.

In fact, what humility is not is a good place to start. Humility is the absence of many things that we can do without.

Humility is not about deprivation. Humility is about more, not less. A humble heart gives more, has more room, sees more good, and is more generous.

Humility doesn’t make itself less. It doesn’t think of itself at all. So less cannot happen.

Humility does not bring itself down. It raises others up higher yet. A humble heart can hold up a chin. For a heart to do less would be to devalue everyone. Humility is about giving value, not taking it away.

Humility is not false. It doesn’t pretend to something it’s not. It doesn’t deny the truth about what is good. A star needs to shine fully bright to remain a star. A humble star knows that shining is what it does well and is generous with its light. Falsehoods in any form, are not humility. They are a denial of the truth, that’s something else.

Humility is without guile. It needs no plot, no plan. It has no needs at all.

Humility is not about me. It doesn’t make me bigger or smaller. It’s about everyone else.

We don’t know when we have it, because when we look at ourselves it is gone.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

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Just a Thought

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 8 Comments

From the Georgetown Commencement Speech

Hope is not an idea or a personality.

Hope is a choice.

–Reverend Jim Wallis

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How Did I Know . . .

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration | 22 Comments

. . . I Was a Writer?

Old Book MS

How did I know?
I knew when other voices
became only opinions.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Yes, Please! — Thank You! — You’re Welcome!

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 11 Comments

I've been thinking . . .

I’ve been thinking about a post called Dante would be proud, at the Church of the Customer for two weeks now. The post is only 7 lines long, but points to a Wall Street Journal article about a law firm that is teaching it’s partners to have manners.

It sounds like they’re learning via PowerPoint. Ouch!

I can understand the position they’re in. I lost my manners once. I’m not sure when or where they went. Maybe they left when we changed to a casual dress code at work, or maybe they flew the coop when parents let their kids call adults by first names. I don’t know

I just know that mine were restored by a lovely 8-year-old Australian girl.

We were at a gathering at a home where I was staying while working on a publishing project. The young lady’s mother was an author on the project and is a friend. This young lady herself is a fabulous conversation partner. While we were talking, I volunteered to help her fill her plate from the massive buffet that was being offered. My arms were longer.

Each time I asked, Would you like this?

My sweet new acquaintance answered with, Yes, please. Thank you! or No, thank you.

How could I NOT say You’re welcome to a smiling face saying that? How could I not MEAN You’re welcome? It felt good to help her choose what she liked.

Several Yes, pleases in a row took me back to second grade, hearing my teacher say, We’re polite to show other people we care and to give them our respect.

I’ve been saying, Yes, please. No, thank you. and You’re Welcome. ever since. In a way, saying, Yes please, makes me feel brand new — like a kid again.

Yes please is so much more fun to say than just saying Yes.

This weekend I’m going to be saying Yes, please! Thank you! You’re Welcome! whenever I can

Thank you for reading this. . . . Thank you again. :)

Liz's Signature

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The Top 10 Ways to Start Living Your Life

Filed Under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 56 Comments

Everyone Gets the Same 24 Hours

parrots talking to each other

Life — it’s what we do between the time we get here and when we go. We only get one, and despite what other folks might suppose, it’s ours to determine what to do with it.

We don’t measure life in hours and minutes. We measure life in memories and moments.

What do you think of when you read this sentence?


It was the time of my life.

We don’t say that often enough.

The Top 10 Ways to Start Living Your Life

Life either happens to us, or we take hold of life and live it. Here are 10 Ways to get a life and start living it.

  1. Give yourself permission to claim your life. That’s right — permission. You’re the only one who can decide you are in charge of your life. Even though it feels like you’re not supposed to do so, turn off the internal editors, the old tape recordings, the “shoulds, have tos, and musts”, and the rules that didn’t come from you.
  2. Define what living means to you. It’s not as hard as it sounds. Just picture yourself at the end of your life looking back. What words would you want to describe how you lived your life and who you are as a person?
  3. Stop living in the future. Every time you think “someday” or “when I have time I will,” stop. Ask yourself, “Why not now?” Think about this sentence, “I always wanted to, but never did.” Start doing the things you always planned to do. Choose your life every morning. Plan one thing you will do that day to feel alive.
  4. Surround yourself with people who enjoy living. They’ve obviously discovered how to have a life and live it. Why not hang with the pros?
  5. Lay down your pain and your anger. Carrying them around makes living harder and less fun. It doesn’t bring anything, and it steals a lot.
  6. Let the losers win. Don’t argue about things that you don’t care about. Unless there’s some real threat, let the folks who have something to prove, prove what they need to. Why waste your living time trying to fix what’s wrong with them?
  7. Create energy. Jump to forgiveness and love, then figure things out. Most conclusions we jump to are not only wrong, they’re negative. Negative conclusions lead us to prepare a defense. Being on the defensive isn’t living. It’s hiding from life.
  8. Learn the physical symptoms of when your head and heart become disconnected. We know when we’re having a knee jerk reaction, when we’re feeling sorry for ourselves, and when we’re being blind to people’s feelings. We can remember how it felt physically while we were behaving badly. Get to know those symptoms, and you can stop the behavior. Living life will feel a whole lot safer because you won’t be in danger of shooting yourself in the foot.
  9. Take small risks that push your boundaries in every way. The joy of life is packed in learning that matches our skill set. When we stretch just a bit intellectually, physically, emotionally, we grow. Living is growing. Even your cells know that.
  10. Value and protect the people and the places you care about. A job isn’t a life. It’s just a part of one. Let the people you care about come first, and let everyone know that you do. Re-read numbers 1 and 2.

We come into life with whatever we’ve got. It’s ours to do with. It took me a while to figure that out — that my life isn’t just what happens to me, that I could take hold of it.


I want to have the time of my life.

You’ve already got a life too. Are you living it?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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