I’ve been thinking a lot about the Stoic Epictetus on pride:

“Don’t pride yourself on any assets but your own. We could put up with a horse if it bragged of its beauty. But don’t you see that when you boast of having a beautiful horse, you are taking credit for the horse’s traits?” (Handbook 6).

We should take pride in, take seriously, improving ourselves. But we often take pride in the excellence of something else (our body, our reputation, our career). These are, at best, poor proxies. We can tell because of all the people who have great physiques or careers but are not admirable people. We brag about our horse.