Pride

Pride has its place within a slave's psyche. Feeling pride in your submission is an important thing, it helps motivate us to enhance our service, to do things to show our owner that we are happy, to make our owner proud of us. To me, the feeling of knowing Master is proud of me for something I have done, or for something I have learned. Pride can come in many different forms.

 Pride in service is important. If you take pride in your service, it shows in the quality of your service. If you have pride in the way you serve, your service is better, you are more attentive to your owner's needs and wants, more willing to gracefully serve His desires. I don't see how a slave can be happy in their service but not have pride in said service. That is one of those "does not compute" ideas.

Master always says that a happy slave is one who serves well. Part of being a happy slave is, in my opinion, having pride in your service. Being proud of the collar, being proud of your Dominant, being proud of the tasks you are asked to do. Taking pride in doing the tasks asked of you shows that you are honoring your Dominant. It shows you are happy and that you are striving to do your best in serving your Dominant.

Too much pride, on the other hand, can lead to laziness. If a slave thinks she is too good or can't take direction well, she won't be able to grow. Once a girl stops growing, her service suffers. It is a fine line a slave walks at times, between enough pride to help her grow and too much pride, making her a know-it-all-slave. The know-it-all-slave tends to have an attitude and does not take criticism or direction, she stops learning and is often annoyed at the rest of the community because they can't live up to her all-too-high expectations, the expectations that everyone is as experienced and knows as much about the lifestyle as she feels she knows herself. She feels she is high and mighty and uber/perfect slave.

With a well-placed "Good girl" or "nice job" Master fosters the right mental state for that balance. When He redirects or corrects something I have done, He does so with a kind word for the effort and never puts me down. He fosters a positive environment for me to flourish in, thus creating space for me to feel pride in myself and my accomplishments, He knows when I feel the right amount of pride in what I have done or learned, I am happy. And, as I have said before, He fully believes that a happy slave is a well behaved and dedicated slave. He knows when I need to hear the positive encouragement and when I need a reality check. Master has helped me further develop my slave style into a more well rounded style, and He has done that by fostering the proper sense on pride within me.

Should a slave have pride? Hell yeah!