Better Than This
A hopeful call to confront inequality, release pride and build change through courage and kindness.
"To let go of pride and learn to try" — Better Than This
Ask most men what's stopping them from having a hard conversation, apologising first, or asking for help, and pride rarely gets named directly. It gets called being "realistic," or "not making a big deal of it," or "handling it myself." Strip the framing away and it's usually pride doing the actual work of stopping them.
Pride Disguises Itself as Practicality
Pride is uncomfortable to admit to, so it tends to travel under a more respectable name — practicality, independence, not wanting to burden anyone. Those framings feel more acceptable to say out loud than "I don't want to look like I need help," even when that's the real sentence underneath.
Trying Requires Being Willing to Look Bad First
Learning to try — at a hard conversation, at asking for help, at admitting fault — means accepting you might do it clumsily the first several times. Pride resists this specifically because it hates the in-between period where you're visibly still figuring it out.
What Actually Waits on the Other Side
Letting go of pride doesn't lead to some dramatic transformation. It usually just leads to a slightly easier phone call, a slightly less tense dinner, a mate who finally hears what's actually going on. Small returns, but real ones, and they only show up once the pride's been set down.
A Song Built Around Exactly This
There's a song called Better Than This that names this exact trade directly — pride, let go of, in exchange for learning to try. You can hear it here: https://imale.com.au/listen/better-than-this
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