Humility comes naturally to some people but it can be cultivated by effort. If one considers that we are privileged if we are born with better chances in life which our looks, cognitive abilities, education, health and interactions with people confer upon us we can learn not to take it as entitlement. Such tremendous advantages should be taken not as a given, not as something which one can take for granted, but with a sense of wonder and awe. It is a bonus which should leave us with the feeling of a person who was just about to fall in a deep well or run over by a train.

Moreover, there are always people who fare even better in life than us. None of this is just; most of it is undeserved; and only some of it is the product of hard work and constant effort. But even the capacity for hard work and persisting despite all odds has much to do with our psychological states and the culture we are living in. If we keep this mind we will be so awestruck at the mere fact of being alive and the fragility of life itself that we will take nothing with a sense of entitlement. That is the beginning of humility.

But humility does not mean having a low self-image. One is not a collection of useless atoms just because one happens to be less privileged or feel less lucky than others. One must remind one’s self that one is doing the best one can under the circumstances since one can neither choose one’s parents nor much of one’s inherited baggage. Nor, indeed, can one choose the quotidian conditions of one’s existence. So, the best attitude in life is to accept things which we cannot change and try to change what we can. We can cultivate humility along with confidence and a sense of our positive self-worth. Both come from the contemplation of the mystery of life itself and that nothing is to be taken for granted in it.