One of the first questions you ask when you meet someone new is “what do you do?” – as if what you do for a living somehow equates to who you are. I get it; it’s an innocent question and one we all ask just for the sake of conversation. But the underlying subconscious message is kind of toxic if you stop to think about it. It tells us that our worth is dependent on something outside ourselves – some measure of success, whatever it may be. That to be loved, valued, and fulfilled, we must keep doing, hustling, struggling, and achieving.
Why? For what? Happiness, love, and fulfillment? These feelings can only be found within ourselves at the end of the day. You can’t simply acquire them like you can acquire another degree.
Becoming a doctor does not make your more worthy of love than when you were a high school student. Writing another book doesn’t mean you’re more worthy and valuable than you were before you wrote it.
We get so stuck on the external measures of success that we overlook the fact that we’re already worthy, loved, and valuable just as we are. It’s okay to be right where you are, doing exactly what you’re doing. That’s almost controversial to say in our society these days – a society that always wants MORE and wants it RIGHT NOW.
