AM I REALLY ADDING VALUE TO MY WORLD?

Over a decade ago while pondering on my bed about my delayed admission into the higher institution, a question popped up on my mind about what my worth was. What is your worth? I thought about this for some time and then realized it had to do with how much value I had at the time. After thinking about it, I decided to go and visit in-patients at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Kaduna. I was residing in Kaduna then.

Though I was not sure I knew what I was going to do at the hospital, I decided to seek official permission. The permission was not granted, so I was not able to see the patients. I later realized that such permission was hardly granted at such hospitals because of religious considerations. All I wanted to do was do something that would make me feel that my life was of value.

Now, bear in mind that at the time of this experience, I was waiting for admission into the university and it was taking time to come. I was in a situation where I needed urgent assistance. I was really broke at the time. Yet I considered it necessary to prove that in spite of the situation around my life at the time, I was still of great value. 

At another time (months after the experience above), still  overwhelmed same delay in getting admission into the higher institution, I told someone in the local church I was attending then that I was tired. I complained that I felt not useful because my major goal at the time was yet to be realized. He encouraged me and helped me realize that I was so valuable.

I was the worship leader of the church at the time; I wrote songs and led the worship team successfully. So this elder person helped me see how much value I was adding to the congregation and went ahead to inform me that most members of the church held me in high esteem. Eventually I got the admission and realized that I was indeed adding value to my world at the time. Besides what I was doing in church, I was a sales person with an organization at the time. Yet all these did not for me appear like adding value, just because my major goal at the time had delayed in coming.

I have realized that it is easier for us to conclude that we are disadvantaged and cannot amount to anything, just because one major thing we are expecting is yet to come. My encouragement in this article is that we should remain focused on what we are doing at present and give it our best shot. That is the primary place we are adding value. Do not neglect whatever you may be doing at present, it does not matter either or not you are earning money from it.

It begins with the mind. The more defeatists thought we allow, the more condemned we feel. If we can control what we allow in our thought life, it will be easier to reject such demeaning thoughts whenever they come to mind.

Next is about self esteem. It is about our estimation of our self; self respect, do I believe that I’m worth something? When we have positive self esteem, we move about with our heads held high; on the contrary, when we have negative or low self esteem, we deny our worth from within. Sometimes it is because we feel that what we do is menial and of lower wage. Having a mindset that encourages dignity in labour can help.

We also consider self image, which has to do with our view about other people’s perception of us. We allow the mind to erroneously interpret other people’s view of us, in such a way we would consider demeaning. When we believe such, it also presents a poor self image of us to us, making us feel we are worth less that we actually worth.

Talks

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