George Washington, said to be one of, if not the best leader in the history of the world, once stated, “Humility asks us to acknowledge our imperfections. It requires that we admit when we are wrong and then change course.” Some may ask, what makes George Washington the world best leader? But the answer is truly simple, he fully understood the virtues of pride and humility and knew how to put humility to test and removed all doubt in the minds of men that there is strength in humility.

Even after we have acknowledged our imperfections and we have changed our course for a greater good, some people are still confused to exactly what humility is. First I am going to tell you what it is not, humility is not, self-deprecation, humility is not assuming a lowly posture to give the appearance of weakness. Most of all Humility is NOT weakness! “True humility is both revealed and strengthened by an unwavering sense of self, a flexible confidence in one’s abilities and perspective and an assurance that in your actions, your best foot is put forward.” That is exactly what George Washington did on the battlefield to be so dominant, he put his best foot forward and even when he was the underdog and was out numbered in battle, he never gave an inch and always came out on the other side victorious with God to thank.

All my life I grew up Catholic and had God to thanks for all my succes and I personally try to stay humble and show humility. George Washington also grew up with a deep faith in God and lives by one of his famous quotes, “It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.” What I think he meant was that in any nation without a God to believe in there is no place for humility and everything begins to fall apart. On the other hand, I personally believe that with too much pride in oneself, there is a loss of humility and with a loss of humility we lose sight of what we are truly here to do. And that is simply to be great, live everyday like its our last because we never know what tomorrow will bring. Even though it is a bad thing in most cases to have too much pride, a little self pride can be just what is needed.
The right amount of self-belief is the first stage in building confidence and the ultimate stage in attaining excellence. Everyone needs pride, its key in being able to succeed and having confidence but its how much pride that matters. With just the right amount of pride and humility we can find a perfect balance that suits each other perfectly. On the other side of things, I believe that we were asked to write this paper, not to look up the definitions in a dictionary and write a few sentenced on them and learn what they mean but learn how to use them in God’s greatest game, hockey. We need to learn the virtues of humility because we never want to be too cocky on the Ice and get ahead of ourselves. We have to always assume that we are the underdog and have to work our hardest to prove ourselves. At the same time we need to understand pride, and I think we can do this by just simply believing in ourselves that we can achieve the ultimate but we can not by all means think that we can be victorious just by looking at names on a paper or pure talent but by having heart, humility and pride. To go out every game, every shift and give it 200% every second. If we can truly learn to balance the virtues of pride and humility one day we also can be victorious, no we will be victorious on the battlefield just like the worlds greatest leader that came before us George Washington.

Sources

George Washington Quotes. Briany Qoute, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.

<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_washington.html>.