Three Lessons to Keep You Humble When You Level up

Whenever I’m in the midst of my ambitious friends, the theme of leveling up, competing, striving, or trying something new usually pops up.

I noticed a change in my go-getter friends. We all want to live great lives and make an impact in other people’s lives.

The words I heard over and over again were freedom, family, and time. In essence, we all want to level up and have more freedom, more family, and more time.

In other words, leveling up means improving our current station in a way that feels like a powerful shift.

However, when people reach a higher level, their feelings of compassion and empathy decrease, and their feelings of entitlement, worthiness, and their ideology of self-interest increase.

The same personality traits that can drive business success and wealth can harm other areas of a person’s life.

And because it can be very difficult to eliminate these personality traits once they take root in you, they destroy your ability to have healthy relationships.

Does being rich make you mean, selfish, and less human? This article will help you stay humble as you level up.

1. It Is not how big the house is, but how happy the home is.

A rich man lived in a city. He was a very big businessman, and he lacked nothing, yet he was always anxious and restless.

One day he went to a monk in his village. After telling his problem to the monk that he was a man of immense fortune, he was not happy with his life.

The monk told him to come back the next day for a solution to his problem.

At the exact time and place, the rich man returned. He found the monk practically outside in his garden, looking for something.

“What are you looking for?” the rich man asked.

“I am looking for my ring, which I’ve lost.”

Hearing this, the rich man started looking for the monk’s rings. “Where did you lose it?” asked the man.

The monk replied, “My ring fell in my room, but it is very dark in there, so I am looking for it outside.”

The rich man got confused. “If the ring fell inside, then why are you searching for it outside?”

The monk man looked at the rich man and said, “That’s the solution to your problem. Happiness is within you, but you seek it in money and foreign goods. The whole sea of joy is inside you, yet you look outside with a spoon to get water.”

“To give someone a piece of your heart, is worth more than all the wealth in the world.” — Michael Jackson

Money or property is important in life, but happiness cannot be bought with money.

When you level up, it’s easy to forget to appreciate the little thing — the little moments with your loved ones.

The more you can bond with others and connect with other people’s plights, the happier you will be.

You may think it’s always better to have more space in your home, but how you think about space may be more important than anything else.

2. If you haven’t been in someone’s shoes, don’t try to tell them how to tie their laces

When you level up, you will notice you are more confident in yourself, and you think more positively over every situation- which is great.

But the problem with being too confident is that it makes you self-centered. You will begin to consider yourself more important than everyone else. You will start to neglect friends and their problems.

When you see people suffering, you will think they deserve their situation because they did something that led them into that problem. You will judge people without understanding what they are going through.

A former colleague was recently fired from her job because she took a four-day leave without notice. She and I worked as sales girls at a grocery store many years ago.

She had applied for a marketing position at my friend’s hotel. I barely recognized her until she called my name in full. She wanted me to put in words on her behalf because the owner of the hotel is my very good friend.

When I did ask what happened to her previous job? She almost fell apart.

I thought she was being too dramatic for losing a job. I assumed losing a job wouldn’t be why she looked dejected and unkempt.

She looked completely different — all shackled up from the person I used to know. But her story left me frozen and dumb.

She had worked at her previous job for twelve years and was the regional manager. She said she took an emergency leave to be with her son, who had been in an accident and struggled with his life when she arrived at the hospital.

Three days later, her son died. She was going through a divorce at that time, with the death of her son, she felt broken. After her son’s burial, she returned to work so she could get her mind off the pain.

Instead, she took out her pain on the workers and started to relapse. The company felt her incompetence was costing them money, so they let her go.

When I think of how I quickly judged her appearance, I feel a knot in my stomach.

Sometimes we are too quick to judge people without hearing their whole story. As you become successful, you will experience this judgy situation more often.

The best way I tried not to act on my perception of other people is to stay quiet and listen. Doing so helps me process my thoughts and calculate what to say in my head before speaking out.

3. Remember, everything can vanish in a blink of an eye

Most people think once they get rich, all their problems are solved. They don’t believe things can change and their wealth will be gone.

When you level up, you will start to feel proud of your success. It’s common human emotion to be prideful, especially when we have something others aren’t able to have.

Pride is poisonous because it is the basis of disrespect for others and suffering in our lives.

Excessive pride is exaggerated self-esteem by devaluing others. It is often motivated by a lack of self-esteem.

A former German millionaire, Adolf Merckle, with a net worth of $12.8 billion, lost $3.6 billion during the 2008 credit crisis.

Despite the huge loss, he remained one of the five richest men in Germany. But towards the end of 2008, his investment company VEM faced a severe liquidity crisis and recorded losses of $6 billion.

In order to recoup his losses, Merckle made a huge gamble by making a series of risky investments, which eventually caused him more money.

Merckle went broke after losing everything. He tragically ended her life by throwing herself in front of a train.

Pride is one of those things that is much easier to see in successful people. We see this attitude very often among Wallstreet guys and politicians.

Like Merckle, so many wealthy people have lost everything through a series of bad decisions, bad luck, and other unforeseen factors.

“Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.” — Arthur Shopenhauer

As you level up, remember to hold these three lessons to heart- don’t ever forget that the only thing constant is in life is change itself, don’t judge people if you don’t know their story, and money can’t buy happiness.

I hope you practice more humility and compassion from today moving forward.

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About author

Jessey Anthony is a motivational speaker, fitness coach and relationship expert who helps people become confident in themselves in any challenges they face in life. Sign up to my newsletter & more cool stuff.

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