Being haugthy!

The word ‘proud’ may suggest that you have an assumed superiority or loftiness. Because of this, most of the time, you end up being termed arrogant. But being proud of your success is okay, and actually good.
What is bad is continuous bragging about yourself, which could make the other person think that you are arrogant. Something that Alisha Emanuel, senior creative designer at an advertising company has experienced.She says, “At a very young age, I have achieved a lot of success and I constantly receive praises for my good work from my boss. I am really proud of all the success and achievement, and don’t hesitate to admit it because a lot of hard work has gone into it. But my confidence about my work is mistaken for arrogance.”
There is nothing wrong in taking pride in one’s work and talking about it, but there has to be a limit, believes psychologist Dr Natasha D' Cruz. “Talking about your achievements is fine only up to a certain point. Many tend to get judgmental about others, and that’s where they go wrong,” she says. She also feels that the beauty lies in being modest. “If you have done good work and achieved success, why do you have to keep bragging? If you are fulfiled and happy with what you do, I don’t see any need for people to shout from the roof tops. It’s only when you are not sure about things that you brag about them.”
Demeaning your colleagues and trying to gain a superior status, is where many go wrong and get into bad books. When you think that you are the best and no one else can come close to you, you cross the line, feels HR professional Mohini Dongre. “One gets arrogant when s/he is not only proud of his/her work but also feels s/he is superior to the rest. When you underestimate others, and make them feel incapable, you get termed as haughty and snooty,” she states. Ask her how she deals with such people, and she says, “I can’t deal with such people.
I had one such person in my team, and I have realized you cannot change such kind of people. The best solution is to ignore them.” Agreeing with Dongre is BPO professional Jitender Parmar, who feels that a good job and a heavy pay cheque can turn a simple person into an arrogant one. He says “Being proud of getting employed in your dream organization and earning well does not give you the right to degrade others. While there are people who are happy with their achievement and love to flaunt it, there are those who flaunt it with a motive to demean. The latter is bad.”
But this does not mean that you should never brag about yourself. Personality development trainer Malaya Ranjan feels that bragging about oneself has its positives. “It’s a necessity. Sometimes, it’s an attempt to convey the good points about you. In fact, it avoids under-appreciation and it gives you the credit for accomplishments that are really yours. But it’s when you appear self-centred and stuck up that it gets annoying to those around. And hence they label you as arrogant.”
There is a very thin line between being proud and being arrogant. You need to make sure that you are on the right side.
madhavi.shah@timesgroup.com