text: how to be a good boy? many of them say that im a boastful person... but im not! how can i prove them wrong????? well, one way to prevent people calling you a boastful person is to avoid boasting.  another is to avoid anything other people can interpret as boasting, and that's a lot harder to do.  a person who has integrity and strength of character, above-average intelligence, or other positive qualities, can be assumed to be stuck-up and boastful by people who believe it is better to be self-depricating.  on the other hand, the people who are consistently self-depricating are usually told to "stop picking on yourself;" "don't be so hard on yourself."  the answer may be to avoid talking about yourself very much at all.  talk about the other person, or talk about impersonal things, such as your school or job, your town, the hobbies and interests you have, etc.  evaluative statements invite others to evaluate.  if you rarely or never make judgmental comments about others, they may take the hint and avoid them about you.    the one i always had trouble with as a child was the challenge, "you think you're better than me!" or even "you think you're smarter than me!"  well, fact is, these were usually true, but if i admitted it, i would be asking for trouble.  if i denied it, i would be dishonest and condescending.  i finally settled on, "what makes you think that?"  it throws them off, and you can divert the conversation to safer channels.  good luck!