1. People That Constantly Talk About Themselves
We’ve all experienced this before. You have a meeting with someone and you end up sitting there the whole time listening to the other person’s life story and to all of the reasons why this person is so awesome. Then they move on to their kids, and their grand kids, and the great grand kids they are yet to have. If you’re really lucky, you’ll even get to hear about how much MONEY they make, their leadership callings, and about their recently fabricated golf score! When you get to the end of the meeting, your friend thinks the meeting went great and that you’re on your way to the bathroom to check if your ears are bleeding.
Most of us have probably been guilty of this a time or two, whether we’d like to admit it or not. It’s human nature for us to desire the honor and respect of others; and sometimes we see no other way to get that honor and respect but by forcing it into other people. We figure that no one will ever know how cool we are unless we tell them. You’d assume the people doing this most often are confident and even possibly conceded but, in reality, they are probably really insecure. In fact, the most insecure people are the ones that are the most guilty of this disgusting attribute.
Here is the truth: when you tell people how great you are, those people are listening to you and you may think they are interested, but internally they are begging for the torture to stop. It doesn’t do anything to improve their view of you. In fact, it might have the opposite effect. A long time ago someone asked Joseph Smith if the principle of self-aggrandizement is wrong and should we try to make ourselves look good to others. Listen to his answer: “It is a correct principle and may be indulged upon only one rule or plan… and that is to elevate, benefit, and bless others first. If you will elevate others, the very work itself will exalt you. Upon no other plan can a person justly and permanently aggrandize himself.”
Get interested in others and forget yourself, and you won’t need to tell people how cool you are. They’ll find out on their own…
If you will elevate others, the very work itself will exalt you