What Is Something Worth?

BY DIANE KERTH

Photo by Alev Takil on Unsplash

​It was Friday afternoon. The workday was coming to a close and I couldn’t wait to pour myself a glass of cold white wine. When I got home I went to the refrigerator, opened the door and to my utter amazement no wine! How could this be! It was disappointing to say the least. I didn’t feel like making the trek to the store so, I went back to the refrigerator and looked again as if maybe I missed a lonely bottle of Chardonnay pushed to the back, hiding behind the food. No, nothing, not a single bottle of Chardonnay hiding anywhere. All that I saw, was a bottle of Champagne on the top shelf that I was saving for a special occasion.

​Then I realized I have had that Champagne bottle sitting there for at least 2 years! For a “special occasion”? I have had many wonderful events in the last 2 years so why was I SAVING it? And what makes a bottle of Champagne any more special than a bottle of wine?

This really had me thinking. The Champagne I was staring at in the refrigerator was only about $10 and the wine I usually purchase is between $10 - $15 so what gives? My bottle of wine is often MORE expensive than the Champagne. Is my problem that I spend too little on Champagne or is the problem that I put too little value on the wine just because it doesn’t sound as fancy as Champagne? Why do I value one thing more than another?

Now we are on to something!

Do we value someone more when they have a special job title? Or how they look? Or what they drive?

How much do we value OURSELVES?

Self-worth (a sense of one’s own value) is a driver to many things in our lives. When we have a healthy self-worth, we can have an easier time with decisions, stress and pressure. We can be open to experiences that stretch us into growing as a person. Every day we are constantly communicating with ourselves. It’s called thinking. 😊Over and over we may be repeating some of the same statements in our heads. What we think about can direct how we feel about ourselves. Are we more likely to be successful if we are saying to ourselves:

“I messed up again. Why aren’t I as attractive as other people? I am a failure. I should be making more money in my life by now. If I were thinner people would like me more. If I were taller I would probably be more confident. Maybe I’m dumber than I think? Am I a big loser? I thought I was smart, am I just kidding myself? ”

Or are we more likely to be successful if we repeat over and over:

“I know what I am doing. I am an awesome person. I know I am doing my best. I am improving every day. I am strong. I am special. I am valuable. I am loved. I am a great person. I am succeeding at life. I am confident. I am outstanding. I am worthy. I like me.”

We need to do our best to feed ourselves strong positive language. The words that we keep replaying in our heads make a huge difference on the quality of life we are living daily. We can be so hard on ourselves that we may not even realize it. How we communicate with others, is important for building relationships, having impact and being understood and it’s also CRITICAL to have positive strong communication with ourselves. On the road to a successful life we need to have a strong self-worth and build on it every day.

There are other aspects of how we can increase our self-worth such as doing things we may have always wanted to try but never have. It’s about doing them and completing them, not necessarily being good or bad at them. We also need to treat ourselves well physically and take charge of the areas in our life that we have control over. A good first step to increasing our self-worth is to start being aware, mindful, of what we are saying to ourselves every day. Feed your mind with words that will build you up not rip you apart. When we understand that we are valuable and worthy, it allows us to say YES or NO to choices without worrying about pleasing someone else. Increasing our self-worth, increases our ability to stand up and live the life we want to be living.

​I said YES, to drinking the Champagne!