Worth – The Discussion
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Apr 30, 2013
There's an interesting thing to think about concerning the term "worth" when you try to apply it to yourself. There's no way to think of it in one way; if you do, you'll most certainly fail; most people only think about it in one way.
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There's actually three things one has to think about. The first is personal worth, which is what you feel you're worth as far as taking care of yourself, your happiness, etc. The second is "financial worth", which is how much money and assets you have. The third is "business worth", which is figuring out how much you should be worth in your chosen profession, based on any parameters you can think of, especially reality. Let's look at these more deeply.
I tend to believe financial worth is the easiest one to figure out. All this one takes is knowing how much money you make, what your assets are such as furniture, jewelry, money in the bank, etc. This one might be depressing sometimes or it might give you something to shoot for, but it's fairly straightforward and the one most people concern themselves with.
The second is self worth, and it should be easy to figure out but it's not. Most of us don't think about it or want to think about it. I think about it all the time, but I know I don't do enough to take care of it. I might plan a workout schedule for myself but if it's cold in the morning or I didn't sleep well I'm probably not going to do it. I do take care of the mental part for my self worth, as I'm always accumulating more knowledge and information so that's good. But the way I eat... moving on. 🙂
Financial worth is the hardest because some people value themselves more than the market can bear or less than what their skills should be earning them. For instance, I don't think anyone would disagree that both teachers and people in the military should be getting more money than they do. However, it's an industry with so many bodies needed that there's no way to sustain it if they really got paid what they're worth. If there were fewer teachers or soldiers they'd make more money, but it wouldn't address the greater good.
The reverse can apply to people who do coaching (non-sports), any type of coaching. Rates can go anywhere from $100 a month for 4 sessions up to $20,000 a month if you have someone like Tony Robbins talking to you. Of course it's hard enough to figure out how to value yourself when those who might need or want to use your services have no idea how to value what you do. Quite confusing indeed.
Is this something some of you think about from time to time? If not, is it because it's scary to think about or that you've never considered it before? Now that I've brought it up, what do you think?
Nowadays, the market place has too much say in your own value and worth. After a busy week of trying to tr=urn the tide in favor of your business in a busy marketplace, the amount of negatives you experience can impact your own personal worth.
I can’t disagree with that Steve, but it shouldn’t. Each of us should be able to determine and have the most effect on our worth, no matter which level or definition of worth we happen to be addressing.
I have always fall into 4th option, how much worth for other people as anything depends on them – business, finance and of course happiness. I think it would be very wrong, if I just try to figure out “how happy am I” without thinking about my worth for others.
Not necessarily Carl. After all, if you’re not living well then how can you really help anyone else out? Companies like working with people who aren’t totally dependent on their money; it’s an odd conundrum.
Very good point, Mitch and sure companies doesn’t hire desperate people, but again it depends. What I meant, was how much you worth for your family and friends, not the business point. We are getting to some point like with Klout metrics and pseudo science, that can’t be measured exactly. Sure, money have the exact value, but at the end this might just mean that somebody is better sales person that another.
So you were talking about self worth; see, you have to qualify that since I wrote about 3 different types. lol