I'm Not Worthy!

In the movie "Wayne's World", Garth says "I'm not worthy" when he is faced with a rock legend. I recently had conversation with a very close friend and the "I'm not worthy" topic reared its head. I know that everyone (me included ... especially me) don't feel worthy at times.

* I'm not worthy if I haven't made a certain goal that everyone else thinks I should have made (external validation)

* I'm not worthy if I haven't surpassed all the lofty goals of saving the world that I set for myself (ego getting in the way)

* I'm not worthy if I'm not already the best at ... because I should be ...

Seems like most of this all comes from external judgment (see the previous post on judgment) and not from a true lack of worth.

So how do we go from not feeling worthy (whether we know that's how we're feeling) to having a healthy sense of self-worth and not cross over into arrogance?

It seems that arrogance has more to do with looking for external validation than actually accomplishing something. So you are arrogant (and yes, I've been called arrogant on many occasions ... sometimes called for ... and sometimes not) when you accomplish something only so other people can see your accomplishment. Ok, that sounds like a good line. Do amazing things from a point of view of doing amazing things and not worry what other people think. Of course part of doing amazing things is letting people know you did them. So it is a subtle shift but a good shift ... a shift of perspective of where you are coming from.

And doing amazing things (like being a rock legend) just because you want to do things that are amazing and then recognizing that you did them is all part of a healthy self-worth.

So remember, those feelings of not being worthy are gifts that someone else gave you. Return them ... send them back to the store ... give them to someone else ... just don't keep them.

And then do something amazing ... just cause you can.

Remember the last line in Seth Godin's book The Dip: "Go ahead, do something. We're waiting"

See you on the wire

- Steven