Discovering Your Value

Sitting Down with Friends, digital image by S'zanne Reynolds, Studio Zanne

"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."
~Albert Einstein

I've been thinking deeply about success and value...and how I define success and my own worth. There are so many ways to be of value and very few of them look like our modern definition of "success". 

Recently, a friend shared that her children's school has an art history program run by the parents. These volunteer moms and dads, from all walks of life, humbly present various artists and artworks to the kids. What an incredible value they are providing for those children, the teachers, the school and their community --what lives they are changing! 

So, how does one define success or measure one's value?

Is success a great painting? a big house? a tiny "green" car? or doing something "big"? It might be.

But is your value in that painting, in the house, in the car or even in the doing? Probably not.
 

Rather, isn't value felt by contributing color to a wall, comfort to hearts at home, and ways to transport yourself and others into living a full life? and even in just being who you are? Perhaps value isn't really created, but opportunities to experience value are. Perhaps our value is already within us...and maybe failure only comes from failing to recognize the value already there.

I read an interesting example of our inherent value. If we are all compared to individual pieces of a puzzle, each necessary for the whole, then one piece is not more important than another. If you turn the puzzle over, all the pieces look the same grey color...one is not more colorful or more intelligent or more needed  than another. If you take even one seemingly insignificant piece away, the whole puzzle falls apart.

Would you think of yourself as more successful if you realized your inherent value....rather than thinking that your value is dependent on your success?

It seems that when we take the pressure off to perform and to be a "success",
we can then be free to experience our real value.

So go out and discover your value today...
I bet you'll be really successful at it!