Know Your Worth
If you don't know this yet, I am a huge fan of motivational quotes. Remember my " Motivational Quotes to Get you Through the Week" post? Wise words to live by. Last week I was in a funk. This usually happens when I have a lot of down time and little energy. I thrive on being busy and constantly on the move, especially when it has to do with my career. Like many of us, I am very career oriented and (as much as I hate to admit it), most of my waking minutes are dedicated to progressing myself in that area of my life. However, I get real bent out of shape when I have unaccounted hours where I'm basically doing nothing because a) I've completed everything on my To-Do list, and b) I have little energy. What bugs me the most is that sometimes I get these feelings in the middle of the week and I think, "You still have half a week left, you don't deserve to be tired. You're only allowed to be tired on Friday night when you have had a successful week."
Do you see how terrible this self-talk is? For one, that puts an unbelievable amount of pressure on myself to be "successful" (whatever that means) and it encourages burn out. Not only that, I act as if I have to deserve a break. I have to keep myself so busy and productive that I make myself believe I can only earn rest. Yet, when I do take "rest" my mind wanders into the territory of "what more can I do?"
While mindlessly going through Instagram, I came across this brilliant quote:
It started to sink in that perhaps the reason why I like to keep myself busy is that I associate a great deal of my worth with my career. If my career is skyrocketing, my self-esteem goes way up. However, if my career takes a little dip, my self-esteem takes a nose dive. This is what happens when we build up our lives focused on one category of wellness.
Wellness researchers have identified eight categories of wellness that need to be in balance in order for us to live our best lives. These categories include: physical, occupational, spiritual, environmental, financial, emotional, social, and intellectual. To achieve mental wellness, we must be balanced in our satisfaction in each of these categories. Notice how most of my attention would be placed in occupational wellness and little attention in the rest of the categories.
Remember my favourite saying is that "too much of anything is a bad thing." My task, now that my eyes are opened, is to derive my worth based on all eight categories. I have to re-discover my worth through the lens of my physical, spiritual, environmental, financial, emotional, social and intellectual satisfaction as well. Perhaps then, I would have realistic expectations of myself, encourage self-care, and learn to have fun here and there.
It's definitely a work in progress and sometimes it's nice to have a little kick in the pants to remind you to practice some self- love and compassion. You yourself are your own best friend and your worst enemy. You just have to figure out which voice you want to listen to.