Pride is self-importance and self-focus -- which leads to selfishness which is selfish thinking and selfish acting -- which is the opposite of Jesus' command of agape love (John 13:34).
Mowing Direction. Finally, you should mow your lawn in different directions each week so it does not lay down one particular way. If you mow the exact same direction every week, your grass will be trained to lay one way (much like training your hair to lay over) and this will cause issues.
The leaves are going to continue to fall or blow into your yard. I have the same problem but I refuse to rake them. I have a mulching mower and I just mow over them and mulch them into the lawn. I do this even if the grass doesn't need cutting.