An Empire of Self-Worth

geminirooster2013

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." - Henry Ford

Henry Ford paints a pretty poignant picture of the hurdles everyone faces on a daily basis. The proginator of Ford Motor Company, Henry faced substantial adversity by opponents in the auto industry such as The Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers who filed suit against his ability to sell cars. He was sued by his stock holders for buying shares of his own company and lost, but eventually bought them out anyways.

What can we learn from Mr. Ford's example?

Never stop.

Today I was faced with numerous obstacles which, while they could never hold a candle to the kinds that could have toppled Henry's business, seemed every bit as trying to someone who is trying to build an empire of self-worth.

What is self-worth? Some may define self-worth as a quality of being proud of one's accomplishments, recognizing the good we do for ourselves or for others. Others may define it by our families or our children. Still others may define it by knowledge, or, most commonly, money and career. Regardless of how one defines self-worth, it is important to not get it confused with self-esteem.

Self-esteem is the quintessential byproduct of self-worth and not the opposite. You will never gain a feeling of worthiness from feeling good about yourself. Inherent to feeling good about yourself is feeling like you've contributed something or accomplished something. So rather than striving for self-esteem or focusing on our lack there-of, I issue a challenge to each of us:

DEFINE OUR SELF-WORTH

Woah, holy buzz-words Batman. They may be buzzing, but they are every bit as true as when someone, hopefully ourselves, along the way told us "you need to lose weight." So what is your definition of self-worth? One excellent way to look at self-worth is to further define what success means for you, these two often go hand-in-hand. What is something you can reflect on at the end of your life and say "Yeah, man, I did myself proud and built an empire of self-worth?" A lot of people will say "MONEY" - but that isn't and cannot be all there is to define who we are.

I predict we spend an immense amount of time on our weight loss journies focusing on the external:

"How much weight have I lost?"
"Do my clothes from last summer fit?"
"Do you think my friends notice?"
"Do you think I'll attract a new mate?"
"Are people going to stare less?"
"Am I going to be able to play with my grand/children more?"

but not nearly enough time focusing on the internal.

I define my self-worth by knowledge. I treasure understanding and knowing as much as I possibly can about different cultures, histories, art, architecture, film, religions, politics, literature, etc as I possibly can. One of the ways I have remained so positive through everything I've gotten myself into is to constantly learn and be learning. To reward myself with knowledge and opportunities thereof.

Knowledge may not be the key to self-worth for everyone. The key lies within each of us. If we can find that key, I assure you we will be able to open the door to our empires of self-worth and find the intrinsic rewards that will allow us to battle our extrinsic obstacles in that we may ultimately claim a victory for ourselves in the end despite any set-back.

Love yourself.