Pride asserts control over others and over outcomes. Pride takes all the credit. “I controlled that. I did it.” We have been given by God that ability to plan out a course of action. But we often are just planning our actions and setting goals, we are trying to control the outcomes. That is pride.
When I worked selling computers, we did this. We set goals. Mine goal was to sell $100,000 worth of computers and computer stuff each month. Most computers sold around $700 bucks. But I sold cables, printers (“I would like to buy a printer.”), monitors, disks, everything. So selling 100 grand was taking a lot of calls. It was tempting to try to manipulate things. Accidently “hanging up” on people who was just comparison shopping. Not calling back customers who had problems or questions when they had already bought from me. There was a guy who sat across from that did that.
Eventually, I did what was right and I surpassed the other guy and surpassed the goal. It was God who blessed me with the sells and the principles to do so. But it is sure tempting to say, “This is what I did.”