When you think of the word humility, you likely have visions of an embarrassing moment in your life or the life of someone else. You might think of someone getting cut down to size, or a person that is shy or has a mild temperament. None of these versions of humility is what we’re going to discuss when it comes to excellence.

Discovering your ZOE (zone of excellence) will however require you to practice humility. How will you go about this? There are various ways, but it all boils down to your capacity to constantly learn from everyone and everything. That sounds rather daunting doesn’t it? Fortunately, there are small steps that you can take toward humility. The first step is to listen to and work through constructive criticism.

In an article by Fast Company, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic shares some strategies for utilizing constructive criticism in a healthy way. The key point from the article is that it is an ongoing process which requires experiencing criticism in a space where you feel safe and trust the individual offering the criticism. The article also speaks to revisiting this space for continual evaluation to maintain a standard of growth.

While it’s helpful to have another person evaluate your growth and offer insights, it’s also important to evaluate your own growth in humility.

Are you learning from the people with whom you interact?

How do you respond to difficult conversations and stressful situations?

Have you learned from a previous mistake and put your knowledge to practice recently?

These are all practical ways to study humility and apply it towards your journey of excellence.

ACTION STEP:

• Schedule lunch with a friend or colleague that you know will offer constructive criticism
• Be sure to ask the tough questions to gain useful feedback
• Reflect on a time when you avoided humility in a situation and evaluate how you could have humbled yourself instead. 

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