Pride can be a great aid. It can keep you within social boundaries, ensure your willingness to participate in physical upkeep and help you maintain motivation to succeed in life. It can also, if left to its devices, keep you out of a perfectly good online dating relationship.
Have you ever found yourself arguing with your spouse or significant other over something trivial, and realized half-way through that you were wrong? Did you then keep going, still knowing you were arguing a losing point? I know I have, and it got me wondering why. As human beings we’re naturally prideful. Again, while this often serves our good it can also be a huge downfall if not checked regularly. Who knows how many otherwise great relationships have ended over one or both parties being too prideful to admit wrong doing and apologize. Or for that matter, admit being wrong period. More fights are caused in relationships over issues of pride than infidelity or money, I would wager. And what about those situations where you know your partner is wrong but they’ll never admit it? Do you simply keep arguing until the end of time, split up, or do you simply apologize yourself and drop the subject just to appease them out of an otherwise senseless argument? True enough, there are some issues on which you should stand your ground and resolve before moving on, if moving on is even possible. As for those other petty issues that have no true meaning, like who won the World Series in 2005 or what marinade works best on steak, perhaps we would all do better to not sweat the small stuff. Perhaps we’d all be a little happier if we could more easily accept being wrong from time to time.