Having pride in yourself means deeply caring for yourself in order to achieve your very best in character and deeds.
True pride has to do with treating your own self as important to you. It has nothing to do with trying to impress other people with your importance to them (false pride). And it has nothing to do with trying to impress other people with your unimportance (humility). True Pride is a caring relationship you have with yourself. False Pride and Humility are concerned with making an impression on others.
As a culture, we encourage children to feel pride in themselves and in their accomplishments. But when we become adults, the picture totally changes, which I attempted to "paint" with this ditty:
As an adult you are told, "Pride goes before a fall"
This takes away your confidence to try anything at all
Pride is suddenly condemned as a "sin"
So Pride is swept out and Humility's swept in
Whenever you aspire to improve anything, you have to attempt a climb, and whenever you climb, you risk taking a fall. Falls are part of your learning process. They are the mistakes and failures that are often your best teachers.
A climb is hard work. Deeply felt pride is crucial to any worthy climb. In order to undertake a challenge, you must have a solid belief in your own worth. You must care about yourself enough to put forth the effort. You cannot afford to be humble - if you think you're not worthy, you won't even try.
Courage means acting toward your values and goals in spite of your fears. Our heroes and heroines don't abandon their goals because they were afraid they would "fall" (or fail). Your focus cannot be on each failure or success along the way - your focus must be on discovering WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW AND DO to make your dreams come true - and then actually DOING it.
So if you trip or fall along the way to a worthy climb, don't get discouraged and say to yourself, "Why try again?" Take pride in yourself and your progress and say to yourself, "Try, try again!"
HERE'S HOW TO GET STARTED:
1. Think about your idea of PRIDE. You don't want to throw out true pride when you throw out false pride.
Do you confuse pride with the false pride of trying to fake your way through life with dishonest claims about your merits? Such people are far from prideful. They actually feel like good-for-nothings and they're trying to take a short cut to make up for their lack of accomplishment and their empty, undeveloped egos.
Do you condemn pride as an "excessive" focus on yourself? Ask yourself, "Who decides what's excessive?" Why isn't it considered wrong to have an excessive focus on others? What's wrong with focusing on yourself? Aren't you a person, too? You are the only person who is in charge of your life. You are the person who will be setting an example for your children. Doesn't it make sense to focus on yourself in order to make yourself the best person you can be?
Do you condemn pride as the enemy of caring and benevolence toward others? The fact is, a person who never learns to care for his or her own self is unable to genuinely care for another person or truly appreciate other people for who they are. Instead, pride-less people try to please other people to in order to feel better about themselves.
2. Write down these three headings on a piece of paper:
True Pride False Pride Humility (Pride-less)
Now under each heading quickly write down everything you can think of. Don't stew over it - just put down any association that comes to mind. What kinds of attitudes, expectations, or goals would go under each heading?
Examples:
True Pride: I'm good because I take responsibility for myself.
False Pride: I'm good because so-and-so likes me.
Humility: I'm no good no matter what I do.
True Pride: Strive for excellence in everything I do.
False Pride: Strive to win the good opinions of others.
Humility: Don't be so brazen as to dare to strive.
True Pride: I will put myself wholeheartedly into each task I undertake today.
False Pride: I will try to look busy all day.
Humility: I will do what anyone asks of me today.
To apply this to your own life, look at the decisions you have to make and the things you plan to do this coming month. Ask yourself, how would a person of true pride decide? What would a person with true pride do? Then ask the same questions for false pride and no pride.
3. For the rest of the month of April practice doing the things under your "True Pride" column. Pay attention to how you feel about yourself. See if you like your life and respect yourself more - or less.
4. As you interact with other people each day, try to figure out whether they have true pride, false pride, or no pride. Which people are you most attracted to? Which ones are the most purposeful, productive, and fulfilled? Which ones genuinely value themselves and others? Which ones seem the happiest?
By the end of April you will know more about the kind of person you want to be, you will start to take pride in yourself, and you will have an increased respect for others. | 
