Everybody talks about how great it is to be humble and what are the advantages of it. But is there such a thing as being too humble? Can it have some disadvantages as well?
That is what I will try to discuss in this article, while being too humble is not the biggest problem in our society, some people are losing opportunities in life for being too humble.
I have another article about humility vs. low-self esteem to understand better the difference between being humble and having low self-esteem.
Obviously, no one likes an arrogant person who exaggerates things and always likes to brag about what they can do or have done.
This makes other people want to be too humble and don’t want to show-off even when necessary.
Can you be too humble?
Yes, being too humble can be to your detriment in certain situations.
Sometimes you have to show other people what you are capable of, what you are good at, and why they can count on you or why they should choose you.
This applies to a job, finding a relationship, making new friends, and so on. So it is quite important in life to be able to sell yourself, so to speak. The tricky part is to do this without bragging, I have an entire article about bragging vs. sharing information that might help you understand the difference and how you can avoid being perceived as bragging.
There is such a thing as being fake humble or false humility. We all associate being humble with good people and some people take advantage of this on purpose.
There are people that brag about something while making it sound like not much. Of course, fake humility is not only that, but I will not go into details in this article since it is a long article on its own.
But the idea is that lately, people believe that being humble is such a great quality that they are overdoing it. Don’t understand me wrong, being humble is good, but too much of a good thing is indeed a bad thing in this case.
Read Also: Is Shyness A Weakness?
Disadvantages of being too humble
Here I will list all the disadvantages of being too humble, this is what comes to my mind, for sure there are more of them depending on your specific circumstances.
1. Being underestimated.
There are certain situations when being underestimated is actually a good thing but in most situations is not.
Imagine being underestimated at a job when you want to advance in your career or being underestimated by a person you like and never having the chance to show what you are capable of. There are many situations where people who are too humble are underestimated and never get the chance to show who they actually are or what they are capable of.
So you have to find a balance between being humble and showing your strengths from time to time. How much you have to show varies from one situation to another, so there is no magical formula that will help you know when you are being too humble.
2. People will not trust you with difficult tasks
If there is a situation where someone capable is needed to fix a problem at the job, in school, or so on, no one will count on you since they don’t know that you can actually do it.
This will cut your chances to advance in your career or life since we tend to appreciate and promote people who solve difficult tasks more than others.
3. No one will want you on their team
Life is often about teams at work, school, hobbies, team building, and so on. If you never show your qualities to other people, they will likely avoid you when they choose their teams, and you might end up without a team or in a team you don’t really want to be in.
You have to show your qualities from time to time, so people will know why they choose you to be by their side.
4. Low chances of getting promoted
At a job or an organization, the boss or the person who makes the promotions doesn’t have all the time in the world to spend with each and every one of their employees. So they might need to promote people based on what they know about them without spending too much time getting to know them better.
If you never show what you are capable of, there are low chances they will know that you are capable of anything, so why would they promote you over someone that showed their qualities? You might even be more capable, but they don’t know that.
5. Losing opportunities
People tend to share the opportunities they know with other people they consider suited. If people around you don’t know why they should count on you when an opportunity comes, they might not bother sharing the opportunity with you, not because they don’t like you but because they don’t want to waste time with someone they don’t consider capable.
Read Also: Being Too Open-Minded – Is There Such A Thing?
Conclusion
Being humble is a great quality, but make sure you are not too humble. Showing what you are capable of from time to time is perfectly normal, you should not feel like you are arrogant or annoying to others every time you show your qualities.
Make sure you are not bragging about how good you are at certain things, and everything should be fine.
The last thing you want in life is to miss opportunities you were perfectly capable of because people around you didn’t know that.
