Humility

Is humility still modern? In a world of ‘selfies’, where today’s “elbow society” is triumphant, charged with egotism and founded on ruthless competition and self-interest?

What, indeed, is humility? The origin of the word can be traced ultimately to Latin “humus”, or “ground, soil”. With humility you rest squarely on Mother Earth, simply and unassumingly, representing values that eschew self-marketing and great show.

Humility means not inflating our egos, not aiming to impress others or compete with them for status. Even lack of self-assertiveness, and not taking ourselves too seriously – with the beneficial result that we can actually laugh at ourselves!

Humility has nothing in common with humiliation. It is, instead, calm humility which strengthens your self-confidence. You know that your intentions are good and that you’re acting altruistically. You do not constantly demand support from others – because you know your own capabilities!

The less we focus on being celebrated, the more we will learn to appreciate and be appreciated. Humility is an expression of wisdom. And, even more: once everyone recognizes that they live in a complex network of relationships, they will be better able to adapt to living with other people, with nature and technology in harmony and with no place for extremism.

In deepest humility to all innocent victims around the world, the whole ZKG INTERNATIONAL team wishes you a good start to a successful and peaceful year 2015!

Dr. Hubert Baier
Editor-in-Chief
ZKG International