Why Generic Human Worth Doesn’t Work
When we want to be great at something, we want something specific. The solution is to learn how to have it.
Imagine you’re an artist with an upcoming gallery show. You’ve been working toward this for almost a decade. It feels like your career is riding on it. But more than that, it feels like you are riding on it.
Now imagine that a friend — with the best of intentions — tells you that you don’t really need to put so much value on the show, because you have inherent worth as a human being, just as you are. Whatever happens with the show won’t change that.
Feel better?
I didn’t think so.
This was exactly the position of a client of mine. We’ll call her Deirdre. As she put it, ‘I don’t know what would help me. But I know what won’t. And that’s to hear that I’m worthy just as I am because we’re all special in our own special way, blah blah blah.’
I’ve heard versions of this same complaint from so many people struggling with anxiety about achievement. I’ve said versions of it myself. We were all reacting to perspective that is popular in the self-development world. It tells us that every person has inherent worth simply by being alive. Which then gets taken to mean it shouldn’t matter…
