Your Work, Your Input, Your Output, and Your value Yes what you think we're about to talk about, is actually what we‘re about to talk about. As humans, we often find it difficult to rate our Work vis-a-vis Value, and why is that? It's because most times we're not sure if what we're doing is worth the value we're placing on it or vice versa. Confused? Okay, let's go step by step. Defining the terms: The term Work refers to your job, skill, career, craft, etc. The term Input refers to the energy you put into your Work to become a better version of what others are. The term Output refers to how you bring your work to the public eye, putting yourself in front of everyone ( this is what I do, this is how I do it, what are your thoughts? You like? Or nay? etc.) And last but not least Your Value, now, will be divided into two sub-sections; The Value you place on yourself: this could be monetary value, self-evaluation value, etc The Value others place on you: This happens during or after Your output, people see you and rate you and that rate determines the value others place on you. Now let's dig deeper, Everyone who wants to be successful has a particular work he/she has in mind to use as their path to success it could be one or more. When choosing this path, I would love to assume you knew the responsibilities that come with them and you were more than willing to carry on through thick and thin, if not why start at all, right? You saw this and decided wow I love this, I would love to do this, you either made this decision because you had a passion for that particular work and that passion drove you into wanting to make it a career and also, make money off it right? Or you decided because you saw people making money and being valued because of it and then you wanted these two things so much, you also resolved to take that path right? No don't worry it's not wrong, I'm driving toward something. One big truth you need to learn, unlearn and relearn is that PASSION is always the drive, it's your plug, it's what pushes you and nudges you, whispering into your ears during good and tough times that you have a goal and you're not yet there. Now, you might say, “I'm just doing this work not because I love it but because I have to cater to my basic needs.” What do you need to survive Money, in other words, your drive for doing that work is the need to make money (your passion is money and it's driving you, it's the car and you're the passenger). Passion comes in different forms it might be your fascination for the work or your desire for money. Let's go further down the lane: Now your passion has driven you to take a profession whatever it might be, but I am sure you would agree with me when I say Passion alone will not veer you toward safety. Now you've started on this career path either as learning, a startup, a job, etc. And you're in for a long ride the bottle of water you need to keep you rejuvenated is dedication. you can be passionate about something and not be dedicated to it, HELLOOOOOO! You've started this journey and along the line you get thirsty, and suddenly you're tired, this does not mean you're weak, you're human and it's only natural to get strained. Dedication comes in here as your driver, if passion is a self-driving car that developed issues along the line, then dedication is a chauffeur that takes over the wheels veering you in the right direction and refusing to let the car get turned off in the middle of nowhere. With dedication in play, you're committing yourself to that purpose, swearing allegiance to see it to the end. With dedication, you go faster and better! Annette Sandberg said and I quote “Passion equals drive, drive equals dedication and enough dedication equals success”. We're almost at the bottom of the pot: Currently, passion and dedication have successfully taken you on a ride of pain and pleasure and you're ready to meet the world. If it was a job you're probably on the verge of a promotion and you need to show yourself to lots of high-ranking officials, if it's a startup, people are already coming in to see what you have to offer, and if it's a skill people want to test you and see if you'll be an epic fail or an epic success. Coming out to the world takes courage and more because everyone is ready to point a finger but everyone makes mistakes don't we all? At first, people point out errors, asking you why you did this and that, why they think this would have been better, asking you why you're trying a different technique, discouragement pours in and only a meager number of people are cheering you. Subsequently, you start feeling the weight of the words from outside and even you might start doubting yourself, it's at this point a lot of people change career paths but what will keep you going is consistency. Consistency brings you to the finish line, you learn and relearn, revitalizing the mind, flushing, and filling. And finally the bottom of the ocean: Value, value, value, self-evaluation you look back to where you started from and where you are right now, you measure your growth and your success. Deep down you know you’ve come a long way and you still have another mile to go, but right now you can easily put on your shoulder padded coats and walk among the best. You would meet people better than you are, of course, currently, it's your decision to not invoke the spirit of low self-esteem on yourself and tell yourself “You’re doing well” regularly. Having a bad or erroneous evaluation of oneself is inimical to one’s success. You cannot rise above your appraisal of yourself. The saying “People will address you the way you're dressed” I'd rephrase in this context “people will address you the way you address yourself”. But don't get me wrong if you address yourself as a CEO and you have no business, no start-up, no skill and you're not giving out any value, nobody would address you as one, those who will do that will do that in mockery. The value you place on yourself and the value you put out there is proportional to the value others will place on you too. Boosting your self-esteem is a good way of adding value to yourself because only then will you effortlessly show yourself to people with a proud smile on your face. In conclusion, ask yourself these: How much do you value yourself as a person? If you were to sell yourself to yourself how much would you be worth? If we were to do a test on a scale of one to ten what will be the score of your ‘personal’ self-worth? How would you score your intrinsic value? How much value are you putting out there to others? How many people have benefited from one or more things you put out there? Are you ready to start putting value out? Your self-value will either sell you as cheap or valuable. Therefore, I urge you to choose this day what you want to be, is it to be cheap or valuable? I have chosen. Lead Image. Also published here.
