The hard thing about self worth is the presence of the word “worth.” Its presence primes us to look for numbers and comparisons around us. It feels natural to look at the races we’ve run and won, our place in the pecking order in our careers, the size of our car or house, and so on.
But, spending our time on numbers and comparisons is just a race to the bottom. There is just more unhappiness and insecurity to be found there. Everybody loses.
The challenge with self worth is measuring ourselves by who we are being today versus who we were yesterday. Are we living better? Have we been behaving in a manner consistent with our values? Are we taking good care of ourselves?
Again, that’s hard to do. After all, any kind of measurement prompts us to look outward.
Perhaps the biggest clue is in the word that comes first. Self worth is more about the self than the worth.
A Learning a Day 