W.I.N. Wednesday: Measuring Your Self Worth
I am currently reading Brene Brown’s newest book Dare to Lead. There is a lot of great content in the book and if you are in a formal leadership position in your organization, then I highly recommend you read it.
I have highlighted a lot of material in the book (I read all my books on my iPad and highlight key statements, quotes and paragraphs) including the line, ”we still struggle as a society around pegging our self-worth to our net worth.”
I believe this is something many of us struggle with. The success stories in books and magazines are often about the people who have made millions and influenced millions. They are the stories of the entrepreneur who started their first company from scratch and sold it for 100 million dollars and then did the same with three more companies. They are about the speakers who regularly speak to crowds of 10,000 people and get paid $50,000.00 to $300,000.00 for a 60 minute presentation. The pictures are of the people with the perfect smiles, the perfect hair, the perfect bodies and their perfect families.
We read the books and the stories and the e-mails advertising how you too can become a millionaire overnight by following just a few simple steps. Then we look at our lives and think, “If that is what success looks like then I am an underachiever and a failure.”
The constant, often subliminal, message is that your self worth is directly linked to you net worth. The problem with judging your self worth by your net worth is that it is a flawed standard. The majority of people in the world who are making a true difference and living a life of significance will never be on the cover of Success magazine. They will never have books written about them. They will never speak to stadiums packed with raving fans. They will never be millionaires or billionaires.
They get up every day, go out in the world, do their jobs to the best of their abilities and hope they can make a difference in the life of one person. They are teachers, first responders, health care professionals, volunteers, and researchers. They serve in the military. They build roads, pick up the garbage every week, work in restaurants, hotels and in retail stores. They are trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, attorneys, landscapers, lifeguards, students, entrepreneurs, executives, pastors, artists and writers. They are sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, husbands, wives and partners and mothers and fathers.
Every day they show up, and do important, often unglamorous work. They lead, model, influence, impact and serve. If you measure their self worth by they net worth, most would have little self worth. If you measure their self worth by their service, their hard work, who they lifted up and made better and what they have given back and paid forward, they have massive self worth.
"At the end of the day it’s not about what you have or even what you’ve accomplished… It’s about who you’ve lifted up, who you’ve made better, it’s about what you’ve given back."
Denzel Washington
What’s Important Now? Be careful of how you measure your self worth. You are likely worth more than you can ever imagine.
Take care.
Brian Willis
www.lifesmostpowerfulquestion.com
Maximizing human potential through Life's Most Powerful Question - What's Important Now?
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