“If you find yourself constantly trying to prove your worth to someone, you have already forgotten your value.” ~Unknown

If you define your self-worth based on whether you get a promotion, how another person feels about you, or the number of followers and likes you have on social media, you may not realize it but you’re letting things out of your control dictate your value. 

And while there’s no denying that we all want to feel valued and accepted in this world, it’s important to note that you’re setting yourself up to fail the moment you attach external factors like your career, relationship status, or achievements to your sense of worth. 

You can see some glaring examples of how this plays out throughout popular drama shows like The Dropout, Inventing Anna, or The Tinder Swindler. While all three shows focus on the crimes committed by the con artist, you also witness how quickly the victims lose their sense of self-worth when they need someone from the outside to validate them. 

The truth is, your self-worth has nothing to do with the outside world but rather the level of importance and validation you place on yourself. In other words, it’s entirely separate from external factors like your career, love life, finances, or appearance, to name a few.

Another great way to think about self-worth is the analogy used by the author and motivational speaker Jeremy Anderson in the short but powerful video, Know Your Worth. Throughout the video, Jeremy challenges the audience to think about value as they think about the value of a dollar. Just because a dollar gets crumbled, stepped on, or even ripped doesn’t mean it’s no longer valuable or worth something – and more importantly, neither are you.

So, the sooner you start to rethink your value, the sooner you can understand who you are and all the potential you possess, regardless of how much money is in your bank account, the relationship you’re in, or where you’re at in your career.