Stress and anxiety at work are linked to a future outcome. For example, you might worry about getting a raise, completing a project, increasing sales, or closing a deal.
But here’s a secret: If you relate to your outcomes in a humble manner, and allow yourself to have a different result than desired, there’s less to stress over.
Often, the first thing that comes to mind when you hear “humble” is whether others view you as humble. Humility, however, is more about the way you relate to yourself and your environment, rather than how society perceives you.
True humility requires you to untie your sense of value and worth to the outcome, so that your worthiness is not at question.
This does not mean that you sit by idly because you have nothing to prove to others; rather, it means shifting your sense of worth so that when you are applying for a new position or asking for a higher salary, your entire sense of worth is not at question with your application or request.
Developing your humility allows you flexibility in your career to take one step forward, two steps backward, three steps forward, one step backward, and so on. If at every juncture your entire sense of worth is tied up in your results, there’s no doubt you will be incessantly stressed. When you let go of external attachments, you free up space to be more creative, productive, and effective.
Here are five ways to start developing your humility today:
1. Stop Questioning Your Worth
You are worthy because you are a human being who is alive. You are not on this planet to compete on worthiness. You definitely have gifts and talents you can compete on—your sense of worth is not one of them.
Simply stop questioning your worth and know that you are valuable and worthy regardless of external variables.
2. Be Willing and Nimble
Be willing to get coffee for someone, sweep the floors, move to a smaller office, or make calls that you used to make when you first started out in your career.
This can allow you to interact with your environment in new ways and can inspire ideas for growth beyond your original vision.
This willingness will allow you flexibility to move back and forth in your journey without worrying about “losing yourself” in any setback that comes along. You will know that at each juncture you may take a step forward or backward and either way it does not affect your worth.
3. Embrace Uncertainty
Knowing that your value does not come from your performance or results allows you to develop a healthier relationship with uncertainty. You will begin to notice that you are more willing to embrace the unknown and look at it as a beautiful mystery rather than a doom that will prove you weren’t good enough to begin with.
You can meet the unknown with a sense of curiosity to learn what can be created, rather than what needs to be avoided. Embracing the unknown instead of fearing it is a key stress-reducer.
4. Collaborate With Everyone
Knowing that you don’t need to prove yourself to others by doing all the work will free up space in your environment for other people to contribute as well. You can collaborate with people from a diverse range of positions and professions to get more creative and productive.
Collaboration can often lead to larger, more meaningful growth than if you’re out to prove to yourself (or others) that you are the best and don’t need anybody else’s contributions.
Group goals allow for everyone to be invested in the outcome and free you of bearing all the responsibility.
5. Reflect and Connect
Spend time to reflect and connect with yourself often. Making time to give credit to yourself and truly acknowledge your journey will help you relate to yourself from a place of respect, value, and devotion.
Over time, reflecting will allow you to see what you might be interested in creating in the future, developing, or building on. Connecting with and acknowledging yourself will give you the backbone and confidence to be in any environment or situation worry-free because you have specific gifts, resources, and skills to work through most situations.
Besides reducing stress and worry, having humility makes you a more relatable leader, a better parent, and a good role model.
There are many benefits to keeping yourself humble on your journey. The biggest is that you’ll enjoy your journey leaps and bounds more, because everything along the way feels like a “cherry on top.”
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