We pause our regular scheduled media discussions to have a check-in. Are you letting your work define your self-worth?
“You are not going nowhere just because you are not where you want to be yet”-Taylor Swift
Last Saturday at noon, I sat down with a strawberry lemonade to work on a big art project, and by 5:00 I was screaming at myself. That little goblin in my brain was telling me I was a massive failure who wasn’t going to get anywhere. By Sunday at 8:00, I was no longer considering changing my major or giving up on my passion. That’s how fast self-doubt can creep in and almost ruin our lives. It’s when you give in and allow the little goblin to have a face and a name.
I’ve been trying to unlearn the version of myself that strives for academic validation. “Validation” has become such an overused buzzword these days, but it can be the line between keeping on and losing ourselves. As humans, we doubt ourselves, and we criticize ourselves. Unfortunately, when outside validation doesn’t come, we only have the opinion of ourselves.
For some of us, we throw everything into our work, and when it doesn’t pay off, it feels like the walls are caving in. Believe me, I’ve felt it, but it’s not real. The world isn’t over because it didn’t pay off. It paid off because we learned what didn’t work and what made us happy.
So you got vulnerable in a pitch, and the board didn’t get where you were coming from? So you thought that essay was great, and it got marked? So the job interview went south? So what? You are you, and you can try again next time.
Tonight, when you write out the ‘to do’ list, the first thing to do is think back to all this. Find the joy and seize the moment. Once you paint it as an opportunity, not a chore, you will be on track to the path you were looking for.