I want to draw attention to the risk of inflating self too early and the risks involved. We see this happening at all levels and fields of activities.
This repeats almost daily. A young soccer player scores a goal in his first match. The ballooning effect of the media starts describing how great the young player is. The poor player believes that he is outstanding only soon to be dimmed out by the media.
A young actor acts brilliantly in his first role. The media interviews him and describing him as brilliant. His photos spread very fast on social media. The actor believes that he is exceptional and suffers from self-inflation. Soon, he becomes too proud of himself. He fails in his next role and piercing his balloon of self-pride by the people who inflated him initiates. Soon the actor feels depressed and may adopt bad habits that end his career.
Two Metaphors for Self-Inflation
The first metaphor is inflating a parachute prematurely. This act can be fatal due to several factors. These include
- Drifting the skydiver away from the drop zone.
- The risk of colliding with other parachutes becomes greater
- The cold temperature and lack of oxygen suffered from premature inflation.
Self-inflating may lead to similar risks. The inflated person may fall in the wrong zone and may collide with people who helped in his self–inflation. Just remind yourself of celebrities who ended up landing in the land of bad habits such as becoming drugs addict. The lack of oxygen due to people who supported them initially and made them glow are the same people who are trying to bring them down.
The second metaphor is cutting fruits prematurely. These fruits lack shining colors, are small, and tastes sour. The early self-inflation leads to bitterness, shrinking fame and fading away of the color of fame.
Watch out for the words of self-inflated people. They are overly self-proud and keep saying I and not we. This is a sure way to lose the trust of others and for the self-inflated person to feel abandoned.
Beware of allowing others to make you feel self-inflates and worse prematurely.
