Pride is a tricky emotion. On the one hand, a healthy sense of pride can be incredibly motivating and help us to achieve our goals. On the other hand, too much pride can lead to arrogance and self-importance, alienating us from the people we care about.
In a relationship, it is important to strike a balance between the two. Too much pride can lead to jealousy, conflict, and resentment, while too little pride can result in a feeling of being unappreciated or taken for granted. The key is to be aware of your own level of pride and to communicate openly with your partner about it, which is what we’ll be teaching you to do.
If you find that your pride is getting in the way of your relationship, try to take a step back and examine your own behavior. Are you being overly critical? Are you taking yourself too seriously? Are you feeling too proud to apologize or take a much-needed step toward your partner? By identifying the source of your pride, you can start to work on overcoming it.
How to overcome pride in a relationship?
In any relationship, it’s important to be aware of your own faults and be willing to work on them for the sake of the relationship. Pride is one quality that can be particularly damaging to a relationship.
Prideful people are often more concerned with being right than with being happy, and they may have difficulty admitting when they’re wrong. As a result, pride can lead to arguments, resentment, and even meddling from third parties. If you find that you’re struggling with pride in your relationship, there are some steps you can take to overcome it.
1- Establish a healthy ground for communication:
First, try to be more aware of your words and actions. If you catch yourself acting pridefully, take a step back and try to see things from your partner’s perspective. It’s also important to communicate openly with your partner, sharing your thoughts and feelings without fear of judgment.
In fact, everyone knows that in any relationship, communication is key. However, when it comes to overcoming pride, establishing a healthy ground for communication is essential. This means that both partners need to feel comfortable discussing their feelings and needs openly. One way to establish this ground is by agreeing to disagree on certain issues.
This doesn’t mean that you have to agree with everything your partner says, but it does mean that you’re willing to see their perspective and respect their opinion.
Additionally, both partners need to be willing to compromise. This means that each person is willing to give up something in order to reach a mutually beneficial solution. By establishing a healthy ground for communication and being willing to compromise, overcoming pride in a relationship is possible.
2- Accept that you can’t always be right:
Pride can be a difficult thing to overcome, especially in a close relationship. After all, it can be hard to accept that you’re not always right, or that you might not always know what’s best. It may also make your partner feel undervalued and small because you always quickly ignore or dismiss their ideas and opinions. And, that’s something we will discuss more in the next point.
For now, let’s emphasize the importance of understanding that regardless of what you achieved in life, your age, and your education; you can still and will be wrong about something or the other. So try to always be open to taking the time to listen to what the other person has to say and to explore their perspective, thinking, and ideas. This will make you realize that you have been missing out on seeing the world from a different set of eyes, a different angle, and under a different lens.
On top of that, pride can also be a major barrier to communication and intimacy. That’s because your partner will start perceiving you as a stubborn person and they will also start feeling unheard and suffocated by your arrogance. And the bottom line here is to be willing to admit when you’re wrong. It takes courage to admit that you’re not perfect, but it can go a long way towards repairing trust and closeness.
So try to focus on your partner’s positive qualities, and let go of the need to always be right. Accepting that you’re not perfect is an important step in overcoming pride, and it can help you to build a stronger relationship with the people you love.
3- Try to perceive the value of your partner, their ideas, and opinions:
An important thing to start doing if you feel you’re too proud is to try to take a step back and see the situation from your partner’s perspective. It’s important to remember that they’re an equal part of the relationship, and their opinion matters just as much as yours.
Also, try to be more aware of your body language and your tone of voice, during disagreements or arguments. If you come across as arrogant or condescending, your partner is likely to feel defensive and less likely to listen to what you have to say.
Another thing you can do is to make an effort to really listen to your partner when they’re speaking. It can be tempting to only half-listen while you’re formulating your own response, but this will only lead to more arguments and misunderstandings. Listen carefully and make your partner feel important enough to be considered seriously, heard, and appreciated.
By being too proud, you inevitably will be making your partner feel insignificant and small. Try to always remember that your partner is your equal. It’s important to respect their opinions and feelings, even if you don’t always agree with them. If you can learn to overcome your pride and truly listen to your partner, you’ll find that your relationship will be much stronger for it.
4- Ask for help from external parties:
Lastly, don’t be afraid to ask for help when it comes to managing your pride. Whether you seek guidance from a therapist or a trusted friend, getting outside perspectives can help you learn new ways to cope with your prideful tendencies. By taking these steps, you can begin to overcome pride in your relationship and build a stronger, more lasting bond with your partner.
No one is perfect, and even the strongest relationships can be strained by pride. If you find that pride is causing problems in your relationship, ask for help. It takes humility to admit that you need assistance, but it can be the first step toward resolving a problem. Also, It can be difficult to set aside your own ego, but it’s important to remember that your partner is your equal.
Relationship success requires setting boundaries, but also giving and taking from both sides. If you’re willing to put in the work, you can overcome pride and have a stronger, happier relationship as a result.