Insignificant
Have you ever caught yourself bragging ...
about how good you are at doing something ...
or how much you have already achieved ...
or how better you are doing compared to the people around you? ..
whether to just yourself ...
or to a whole clapping, admiring, complimenting audience? ...
whether it be consciously ...
or perhaps subconsciously ...
You did?
Admit it, you must have ... and surely, not just once, possibly multiple random times in our lives, we all have unconsciously or very much consciously have bragged , for no one is really exempted in doing such an ego boost.
Everyone is but prone to think highly of one's self at some point in our lives.
Are we really that big? Maybe ... possibly .. or that image of greatness we think of ourselves is it all just ... illusions?
Can you see the two guys following the trail on the ice? Looking at this pic, I felt like a droplet of an ink blotted on a clean white paper. So, we just look this puny.
There's actually two more of those hikers up there, seemingly heading in to that part of that ice caps that seem to have caved in. They look smaller being that much afar. Can you see them?
Can you see the group of men on this one? I thought we look so puny compared to the whole ice capped track on that mountain top up there ...
so tiny, so insignificant, no matter how many...
These, are shots I took while standing on top of one of those so called highest peaks in Europe, the best place to do some "people watching" really. Up there, I realize how tiny as ants we all look from down there.
Even on zoom .. puny like ants, wearing colorful clothing.
While everyone was screaming out of fun below, I was having such random thoughts specially when I saw someone seemingly bragging among his friends. Not because I was judging, am not in any position to do that, I've done that at some point in my youth, it's just some random realization that hit me cause up where I was some "famous" characters were doing it, too. I can't really blame them .. we know how the world works.
Famous now, forgotten later ...
Enjoy fame while it lasts ...(wink, wink)
... for like glaciers slowly melting under the scorching hot sun ... fame too, shall pass and we shall all be humbled.
I hope you don't find yourself slowly drowning in this illusion.
So I wonder... who here would be brave enough to spill out that he or she have caught themselves bragging. What about? To whom? Most of all, am curious much .. what did you get out of it?
That's right. Everyone can boast and everyone does. More or less, depending on the situation, as well as physical and mental constitution. Usually this also happens unconsciously in moments in which even the person who boasts thinks he is only passing on purely factually related information. Often, neither the addressee nor the broadcaster is aware of boast. The object is often possession, but also characteristics with which everyone likes to distinguish himself from his neighbor. This makes it possible to establish an advantageous ranking for the braggart, at least for the duration of the current encounter. Being associated with something special also gives a person the status of something special. Even if the relationship described in boasting is based on pure chance and is not associated with any particular achievement, the nimbus of the special is unconsciously transferred to the reporting person. Very few people are immune to this.
On average, not many people can really stand being comparable and meeting a standard. From childhood on every individual believes to be something special and this assumption is also quite normal. Finally, we are quickly aware of the existence within a social structure and are accustomed through education to classify ourselves according to our individual abilities in a comparative way. This is because most relationships within the entire living nature are based on the principle of individual competition for resources and not primarily on solidarity, which ultimately serves even material purposes. I think bragging is very common and admire those who have overcome this stage in their personality development.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
you see the world as it is don't you my ribbiting friend
I totally agree with that, at some point some of those bragging seek to be recognized of being "above or ahead" of whoever they are competing with. That competition word sure is one trigger of the bragging acts.
I like it that you mentioned that sometimes the achievement or whatever the person is boasting about is
leaving the bragging person unaware that perhaps such opportunity has also been offered someone and it just so happen that he's the one who's taken and have done something about it and struck it lucky.
I like the fact that you've acknowledged that it can be overcome once one realizes what on earth would you gain out of it specially so if you're doing it to seek out competition. I have to admit that I am allergic to bragging moments but it depends .. if the person serves it right - then I would probably join one- upping that bragging person, if there's more to it - I'd probably be the first to take off and flee from their pedestal .
That's what I always try. Often enough this is not possible, especially when one is emotionally involved. But today I know exactly what man is made of, how he is constructed and how his society ticks.
Our existence is no longer a secret, as it was 500 years ago for all mankind, or for the young frog, for example, 50 years ago. I see the world from a modestly enlightened, scientific perspective and today I am always very good at what really is and not at what I want to see.
That was a real low riding bragging now. Cool eh?!
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
hahaha I wanted to write "you're bragging" after this
but you've made your point and I totally agree
being able to discern and accept what is real for what it is and not for what you how you want to see things - is quite a gift
and we, bees also have that ;)
hahaha where did we earn our bragging rights?
I guess in the animal kingdom hahaha
Kingdom of animals. That's it and we are part of. The strongest ape is sitting on the biggest amount of bananas. This fact rules all our life. The christian arrogancy, the view that we are above the animals and therefore more valuable in gods eyes is a very fat show-off. Typical bragging.
I can only laugh with this comment hahahahah
btw.. aren't you joining the steem camp either?
I've bought a second hand ticket but don't know, when to jump over. It's just a hour to go there. Today I'm busy until tomorrow evening.
I did not at all...
I can't, I had to be in the garden this weekend specially today, we had our harvest festival so it was pretty crowded plus our lot happened to be just beside the one which has the calabash exhibit so I did some tending and harvested two boxes of peaches, the whole house smells like it now
I miss out meeting someone I really want to see there, though
all of you in the first place :D
Thank you for posting these lovely spectacular awe inspiring brreathless photographs mon ami.
.......enjoying the reminder we are just a speck on the map if that. hehe
Wishing you all the best. ^__^
A bientot.
xox!
thanks mon ami
here's to wishing you the same ;)
xox!
Well, I enjoyed reading this article very much. Humility is one of my favorite topics; I think an arrogant is an incomplete person.
thank you !
hmmm.. perhaps some of us have so much to prove this world
probably a product of not being recognized by the parents or the loved ones when they were young
some call it narcissism when it goes too much
to the point that the person brags because he or she highly thinks of himself
more than the reality of what or who he or she is
then you may call that arrogance
unlike venom there's no antidote to that specially when done by a narcissist
that I stay away from
it would just want to make you puke if not spit on their face really
Reading again this article you wrote, with excellent photos, which you wisely use to exemplify your topic, I realise that you deserve my humble recognition: Deep reflections, well explained, useful and entertaining (I love mountains). Moreover, now I'm following you for you do something not many people do here, it is "you generate dialogue, discussion" while other people just post their contents and leave it alone. I like that. Congratulations and thank you for the interchange you keep!
)
![]https://www.google.co.ve/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiOqcaqgobdAhWsslkKHbA3D6QQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.trendsmap.com%2Ftwitter%2Ftweet%2F1020786762308902913&psig=AOvVaw0u1PCBQOlWcVjDM_rl0KZA&ust=1535211238007606 (
Foto: In Los Andes Venezuela, a lagoon and Pico Bolivar.
thank you
I don't reply to just any comment anyway
some just throw their opinions without thinking about what to write
some are just irrelevant
and some just throwing out words
unless the person is keeping it real
I don't really reply much
Hi @englishtchrivy
First, let me say that you show us some amazing pictures.
We humans can feel and believe that we are very big in this world.
But we are very small and are like pieces in a little jigsaw puzzle.
When I see your pictures and what you write, I think about how vulnerable we are.
And that we must not spoil the beautiful nature we have.
thank you
so true, I guess it's but just human nature
and I totally agree with you on letting nature keep its beauty like they are doing here
cheers to that!
This is something i have been pondering lately. Been having a mental re-set per say, and becoming much more mindful of my thoughts. One thing i used to do a lot in my job as a manager, was tell friends and my boyfriend of the problems i had over come that day (even then i typed in 'massive problems' initially then asked my self why am i emphasising 'massive', so i removed it). I would go into all the detail and what magical solution i came up with. I didn't make things up, but i made sure everyone know what i had done. I think i felt undervalued there, although i had a great relationship with both of the directors, i felt like i accomplished a lot for them and was not recognised enough for it. I am aware this sounds like im so egotistical! But well, were being honest here, this was how i felt, and i think i am making my self sound rather terrible! ha. But yes, anyway, when i have reflected on this i think for me it was satisfying when people reacted in such a way which confirmed that i was undervalued there. Maybe that's whats even made the job bearable. I am not sure. I suppose we all just want approval right? And we feel like the boring things just dont warrant as much respect, that may not even be the correct word. So when we feel like we've worked really hard and accomplished something, we want to share that with others, like i can do something hard/creative/difficult too.
Hi @myindigoinsight
What you're saying here is probably the same as many experience from time to time and with myself included. You get honors to be so honest
Thankyou :) I think many people on here could write an honest reply to this post, but many will not out of fear for sounding egotistical. I had that fear my self, but i wanted to share it for people to see the value of reflecting on not only how you externally portray your self to others around you, but your own internal chatter also. Becoming aware of, and paying attention to your internal dialect, and why you outwardly portray yourself the way you do, gives you much insight into how you are feeling deep down. We all have this ideal to live up to, don't think negative things, don't think negative things, suppress your ego, you must be a positive balanced person. But i have come to understand, or well, i am in the process of coming to understand that these emotions, thoughts, and even the ego are guiding beacons, and ignoring them will not make you happy and positive. You need to become aware of them, unravel them, make a conscious decision to alter that kind of thinking or take action to remedy the feeling behind the thinking, then you will find peace. If one person reads my reply to this amazing post also, and thinks to his or her self that they will try and examine their own behaviour and thoughts too, then that's a good thing.
interesting :)
I haven't read such honest, all out reply such as this for a long time here
am glad you shared such thoughts
thank you very much
I guess, most of it do it for validation
don't worry you don't sound terrible at all
I'm actually smitten that you put it out there that you were even emphasizing on that "massive problems you've overcome" while typing till you realize and became aware that you were and deleted it
good luck around here, I've read your interesting intro post
Thank you for your kind words :)
I actually giggled at my self when i stopped and thought, 'why did i write massive in there?' It still slips out, old habits die hard! I really enjoy posts that get people thinking, i can imagine several people have read this post, thought about what you have said but not written anything, and likely many others will be in denial that they even have such thoughts or behaviours. It is hard to accept that we think and act in certain ways sometimes. But i wholeheartedly believe you don't know your self very well if you don't pay attention to them. What you know really well is the outward projection of your self, which is usually the socially acceptable one, and we don't want to examine our darker side. If many of your posts are issues such as this then ill be a regular on your posts :)
I think it's positively lovely to share our hard work and accomplishments with others.
Yes, but why do we feel the need to do it? Is it because we are insecure with our selves we need that validation and approval so we share it? For me it was to see others conform with the idea i had in my head that i was undervalued, and i got confirmation of this. I suppose i was insecure about thinking i have accomplished great things because my seniors were not acting that way, so i turn to others to tell them what i had done and they would give me that praise instead. Which yes in essence is a positive thing, it made me feel good, that's what friends are for. But why are we doing it? Is it something else, is it mass conditioning that those who achieve the greatest feats get the most respect in the world? For example if i was cleaning the public toilets for my job, i highly doubt i would have sat down with my friends and told them all about how big the stains were in the toilet and how long it took to scrub. Do you see what i mean? I think the point here is to get us to examine why, we are doing it, because most of us are just on autopilot.
I do not think it is not a positive thing in the right context :)
I find that in private settings, when I am not bragging on myself to intentionally get the job or land the sale, I have to force myself to brag about my accomplishments. I tend to shy away from things that hint of "look how awesome I am" otherwise. I see it as a type of code switching. If bragging to a certain audience will get me the result I want, I can easily do it. However, if bragging does not come with a tangible reward (the job, the sale, etc.), I avoid it.
For example, graduation ceremonies are a public, showy way to say, "Look at me! I did it!" I avoid those types of things. I don't like the attention. And this is going to sound like bragging...but it's simple reality. I didn't go to my college graduation because college was easy for me. Finishing it, earning a degree, was not something that was hard fought and deserving of cheering and parties and congratulations. There was no underlying reason for me to invite a bunch of people to come witness me receive a degree. The degree was the reward by itself.
However, I couldn't exactly maintain close relationships without letting those people into my life enough to know that I had graduated. So when I mentioned it, and it was met with enthusiastic congratulations, I often reverted to my default, "oh, it wasn't a big deal. It was easy." So while that comes out like bragging, it's more of an attempt to deflect what feels like undeserved praise.
Now compare that to the job interview. I'm going to emphasize all the things that I was involved with while in school, I'm going to let them know how hard I worked on each and every class and impress them with my dedication and enthusiasm. I'll explain how much better I performed on assessments than my classmates and make sure they know that I'm the number one pick. It's a different language for each audience and it's all based on what I want out of the interaction. Rarely do I want praise or affirmation. I tend to be a confident individual, so my bragging is typically a calculated decision to share bits of my life with friends or to land the job.
Wow fairy play, i think you're a rare mindset in that case who does not feel the need for as much outside confirmation as most of us. Have you always been that way? I definitely have not always been aware if it or able to think about it. It's a much more recent development.
In line with what you are saying however, when i think back about the way i was behaving whilst working at my job as a manager, now i see it like this- the job it's self was the recognition that i could accomplish those tasks and was able to problem solve. I got promoted to that role, that was the recognition from the directors. Just like you said, the degree was the reward, not the praise at the graduation. I've asked my self well yeah you took a managers role, did you think it would be easy? that is why they have managers if everything was smooth running they wouldn't need one.
I've noticed the same type of behaviour across social media. There are lots of people doing charitable acts for those less fortunate then themselves, my self included. But i don't post about it across social media accounts. I don't see the need. There have been times where things like facebook have been used to turn the project into something bigger, for example making Christmas gift boxes for homeless people. If i had just told my friends about it, we would have had probably 10 pr 15 boxes to donate. But sharing that on facebook resulted in over 60 boxes being donated which was truly incredible. So on the one hand it's a powerful tool to bring people together and get the word out that something is going on, but there is also a trend of showing off or bragging about what you have done too. Although i don't suppose i care that if you bought a homless guy some lunch that you put it on facebook and got 100 likes. The homeless guy had some lunch today, that's what matters.
This post has turned into such an interesting conversation with a few different people. Thank you for taking the time to reply :)
I've always been very comfortable doing my own thing and going on my own journeys. I was never one who fit it, nor did I attempt to fit it. I am very slow to make friends, and I'm sure that my lowered need for validation is probably a part of that.
As far as social media goes... I don't even know where to start. There is such a culture of bragging and showing off that is perpetuated there. I have great difficulty understanding it, but there are many things I don't understand about the Internet still. For instance, why in the world would someone take a staged photo to pretend like they were in a place there didn't actually go? I recently read about a girl who pretended, via social media, to visit Paris or somewhere. Of course, she was found out. But I can't understand why someone would feel the need to pretend this in the first place.
As for the acts of charity, Facebook now asks you to "donate your birthday to charity." It's such an odd request... The vast majority of my Facebook friends wouldn't think of giving me a gift on my birthday. Why am I going to ask them for money for a charity instead of a non-existent gift? I think it goes back to the self-affirmation. The act of donating your birthday makes the birthday asker feel good, while the friend who wasn't going to give you anything anyway can now think more highly of the birthday person for being so generous. However, very little good is actually done for the charity. It's like a feedback loop.
And yes, real discussions and conversations like this one are gems. :-)
Oh, I'm definitely boasting. Earlier this was my clearly expressed need. Now everything has changed, because I know the nature of this phenomenon. It was vital for me to show off my achievements to my friends or family. Especially with old friends from childhood. It is a desire to dominate. It is quite natural human need. I always knew that this is not noble and shameful in the cultural community, but later I found out that this is absolutely natural from the point of view of human biology. Thus we are trying to compensate for the serotonin deficiency and to lower the level of cortisol. If you have other reliable sources of serotonin you will not want to show off!
I believe that everything is fine with your serotonin and dopamine, dear 😍😘😗😙😚🤗🤗
I agree but. (imo) Its also a testosterone thing. But you already saying that. Because the lower the cortisol gets the more testosterone a man/women can produce?
I think i see your point and you are def right people with high testo/sero can be very calm.
However if you work out serotonin rises big time. right? Then why would people pumped up in the gym wanna show of? imo they are high on dopamine, serotonin, testosterone. And the last thing those gym rats wanna do is to not show of.. :)
hi there :)
I haven't seen you for a while so am sure glad that you shared that
thank you very much
so it's all that serotonin and cortisol balancing thing then
wow! thanks for that explanation biologist ;)
I guess it's all a matter of self awareness
we're really all capable of doing it aren't we?
some just know when to step on the breaks I suppose
@englishtchrivy I think that at some point in our lives we brag about things, but I share with you, that from this perspective we are insignificant
Thank you very much for sharing this thoughtful post loaded with beautiful photographs
Congratulations on the choice of visit
thank you
we sure do
after all we're all just human :D
Love the photos. Which peak in Europe is the highest?
As to your main point, yes. I have bragged about myself at points in my life. As a salesperson it helps to build a client's confidence in me. I tell them what I've done and how very good I am at it so that they know they can trust me to do a very good job for them as well.
I've bragged about myself during job interviews so that my future employer will know just how valuable I will be to them once they hire me.
I've bragged about myself to my friends when I've done something that I'm particularly proud of or that I've tried for a long time to do. It lets my friends see a part of my life that they wouldn't otherwise see if I didn't take the time to brag about it.
While no one likes the person who can't seem to stop one-upping everyone else with how awesome they are, I don't believe there is anything wrong with bragging when it is well deserved and earned. It's actually pretty healthy to be able to recognize your own accomplishments and merits and be proud of them.
Yes, we are small and insignificant in size when compared to the vastness of the earth or the cosmos or humanity and history, but we are immense in our own circles of influence, our impact and accomplishments are great to those near and dear to us, and we are worth bragging about from time to time. :-)
I already logged out
but I saw your comment
am glad I did cause I didn't notice my typo thanks to you
as for bragging
congrats, you damn brave braggart :D
have a great night
am out .. sleepy head on this side of the earth
Nice photos!
thank you
What a great post! Your pictures align perfectly with your point, which by the way is an excellent one. When we look at the big picture we are indeed just mere ants moving along the path of life. Trying to elevate our importance or value so that we stand out to "someone". The top of the mountain was indeed a good place to reflect on these thoughts. Something to ponder tonight my friend, thank you :)
thank you
I like how you put it out