The wise assume they are fools. Those with this perspective will assume that they are no smarter, wiser, diligent, or moral than those around them. While this humble perspective is required for God to teach you, it also has the ironic effect of disproving itself: the more humble you are, the less you will have to be humble about.
The person who assumes he is a fool will be made wise by God. The person who assumes he is wise will be made a fool by God. In both cases, the truth will manifest who you really are, no matter what you may think of yourself: “whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12) It is just like Jesus taught in the parable of the rooms of honor:
8 When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;
9 And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.
10 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
11 For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. (Luke 14)
Consider this allegory: As a man ages, by default he will get fatter. This is for a mix of reasons: more responsibilities, less time, less testosterone, slower metabolism, etc. A young man who is fit by nature of his situation (high growth hormone, high testosterone, etc.) will not be exposed to the weakness of his actions until his environment changes and becomes less helpful in hiding the natural consequences of his actions. At the same time the typical man is putting on weight, the unusual man is not. The unusual man has eaten healthy and established appropriate exercise as part of his habits. Early on, it did not matter, but now it shows. If the man was born into environmental or genetic circumstances that disadvantaged his fitness compared to his peers early in life, so much the better, because in adulthood he will overtake his peers who were never blessed with the opportunity to see early on what the consequences of their actions would be in less favorable circumstances.
Paul said: “Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” (1 Corinthians 3:13) It will only be as you are exposed to more and more fire that you will realize how different you are. As you encounter more and more situations in life, and as you acquire more and more light, you will find yourself facing obstacles whose existence and benefit lay further and further outside the awareness of your peers.
If you consistently apply yourself to acquiring and assimilating all the light and truth that God offers to you, you will find dramatic changes unfolding within you day by day. Like taking successive forks in the road, you will find yourself growing further and further from the masses with each step you take. After a few years, depending on how much you’ve applied yourself, you will probably feel like a complete outsider.
After years of this, you will find, upon reflection, that you’ve been surrounded by people whom you assumed were just like you. Without exception, they have responded to your selfless sacrifices by acting very differently than you would in their place. This causes an incessant chain of disappointment and a longing for people who reciprocate the light you emit, or at least make good use of it.
The more you realize the distinctions between people like you and most people, the more effectively you will be able to serve most people without being overcome by the suffering it causes.
It is not easy to realize these distinctions, because people who bear light tend to be modest in their self-view.
Isaiah described the Lord as:
...a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. (Isaiah 53:2)
In Isaiah-speak, this meant that there was nothing about Jesus that was attractive to the mortal eye, in spite of his being the Son of God, made in his express image. Imagine that—the Lord’s godliness did not register on the mortal scale of greatness. It was beyond the observational capacities of flesh.
Just as the godliness of Jesus was not immediately evident to the crowds, the godliness that Jesus has planted in you may not be immediately evident to you. As you consider other people, your tendency will be to project the goodness in you to other people. You will assume that they do things for the same reasons you do, that they desire the same things you do, and that they understand the same things you do. Experience will prove otherwise.
Eventually—hopefully sooner rather than later—you will realize that you are not like everyone else. This knowledge will provide you with a mixed blessing. On the one hand, you will be relieved to understand why your experiences with others have played out the way they have. On the other hand, you will exchange one weight for another, because you will learn that some of the deep longings you have will be even less likely to be fulfilled than you thought.
In short, you have no idea who you really are. For now, that is a tremendous blessing. If you knew who you really were, you would instantly be exposed to the weight of your calling, which invariably includes a kind of abject loneliness that none but those who experience it can understand, and that would be a heavy burden you are not prepared to bear.
There are lessons that you need to learn—skills and character traits you need to develop—before you can gain a better idea of who you are and what you are capable of.