Big news came out last week. The cost of a ticket to one of the national lotteries, Mega Millions, will more than double next year to $5 per entry. Organizers announced the ticket price increase will result in bigger jackpots with better odds. We’d dispute the better odds claim considering we’re convinced everything you attempt in life has a 50/50 chance of happening. Still there are those who will jump at the chance to chase better odds to riches and treasure even though life’s riches are right there in front of them. All they need to do to cash in is take the chance to reach out and connect. More accurately, all they need to do is reach within and connect! Or should we say collect?
Seriously, if you are reading this, you have most of the riches one might ever expect to collect. A sound mind and a sound body are more than just the requirements for drafting one’s will. They create the cornerstone of health, physical and mental, and they are key components to your well-being. We have said before, “Your wealth is your well-being.” We also said, “Whatever you are looking for, look first to yourself. Everything you need you already have,” when we talked about things you really need.
Those last two embedded links lead to some of our Moments of Motivation where many entries focus on self-worth and building or maintaining your self-esteem. It is unfortunate that so many people discount the idea of self-worth, claiming it is a silly concept and that others determine your worth. Pardon our frankness but that is a bully’s approach to life. Self-worth has been a key to personal fulfillment since long before the term even existed.
Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” You determine your value, and your value goes up as you increasingly believe in yourself. Helen Keller, a contemporary of Mrs. Roosevelt said, “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” These are not cute sayings posted on gym walls exhorting you to acknowledge the fear, accept the work, and do it anyway. These are people of great personal strength and societal worth who offer proof that optimistic personal reckoning builds character and confidence much stronger than that determined by others. To be of value to society you must be first of value to yourself. Another strong voice of the twentieth century, Anna Freud, psychoanalyst and daughter of Sigmund, told the world, “I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time.”
The American Psychological Association defines self-worth as “an individual’s evaluation of themself as a valuable, capable human being deserving of respect and consideration.”
It is important to note that a high level of self-worth does not mean you accept everything you do as right or correct. One aspect of self-worth is self-acceptance, and self-acceptance is willingness to accept responsibility for your thoughts and actions. There will be times you are wrong and those are the times your self-worth faces its greatest challenger – yourself. It is not only an appreciation of our strengths. We also need assume the responsibility when we make mistakes, learn from them, and improve our performance. Those are the times we accept that things do not work out as we had hoped yet continue to move forward.
For those times when things don’t go as you hoped, an apt lesson may be found among the stars. As we said in Be Like Pluto, “Pluto used to be a planet in our solar system, spinning on its axis and circling the same sun we do. In 2006, scientists decided it wasn’t a planet. Since then, Pluto has continued to spin on its axis and to circle the sun as we do, not caring what others say about it.” Now that’s self-confidence!
We know confidence comes from within. Sometimes we unfairly challenge our self-confidence by attempting to make ourselves the best and the brightest, the most innovative, and the most loved all at the same time. We forget that it is not important to be all things to all people. It is important to be your best version of yourself for yourself.
Once you accept yourself, you can offer you to others. The true you. The valuable you. The grand prize to your lottery ticket.
Wow. You all have made a strong argument for the value of regarding our self-worth as important. Eleanor was right--nobody can make us feel inferior if we don't give them permission to do it. In a world where we're so attuned to social media and what others say about us, whether or not we have value is something we too often give away to those we think have a better view of us than we do of ourselves. I love the idea of being like Pluto--that planet could care less what scientists say about it. It doesn't change what it is. What others say about us should make us think or consider, but we make the choices of who we…