Do you recognize your worth?
Too often we confuse our worth with our position in society. But our worth has nothing to do with our power or lack of power position. We have worth whether we sweep the floors or own the company. It is not our position that defines us. Our value is intrinsic- it is who we are within rather than what we do for a living or how we are viewed by others.
We are our story- the good, the bad, and the ugly. We are our passion, our values, our vision, and our life experiences. Other people may be part of our life, but they do not define us. We do not have worth because someone decides that we do. Our worth and our value comes from who we are as unique individuals, not from the judgments of other people.
Nilofer Merchant refers to our uniqueness as our onlyness. Merchant states, “Onlyness is that thing that one individual can bring to a situation. It includes the journey and passions of each human.” She points out that we should not deny our history, perspective, and vision, for those things make up are onlyness- they are part of who we are.
Merchant goes on to say that we need to celebrate our onlyness, both the dark and the light sides of our experiences. Like the keys on a piano, it is the dark and the light that make the song complete. She says that although our experiences may not be as “perfect” as we would like, those experiences are a source of what we create. She gives the example- a person who has a younger sibling with a disease may grow up to work in medicine to find a cure.
Merchant discusses how companies may miss out on valuable feedback and cutting-edge ideas because they often only listen to the people in power positions, assuming the low guy or gal on the totem pole has nothing of value to offer. With this mindset, valuable contributions are missed, including what might have been the answer to an ongoing problem.
No matter our job or our position in society, we all have value. We all have worth.
Nilofer Merchant talks at TEDxHouston about onlyness. It really is worth watching…
Related articles
- Onlyness (e1evation.com)
“Onlyness.” I like this. Now to teach ourselves to not only love our “onlyness,” but to also respect, appreciate and love others’ “onlyness.”
Yes. 🙂
True. Too often I think in terms of things I think I need to change about myself, but perhaps that’s due (at least some of the time) to comparing myself with other people — but that’s about conforming, not about celebrating my “onlyness”. Thanks for sharing this!
celebrate your “onlyness.” You make the world a better place.
Hello! i am new to your blog, yet already intrigued!
I am passing along the Versatile Blogger Award to you!
yomicfit.wordpress.com
I hope that you accept this as a “you are so awsome I just had to share it” award!
Keep blogging!
Michelle
Michelle, Thank you so much. I am honored. I am new to your blog, too. I look forward to reading much more. Warmly, Kristin
Kristin, first I loved the word “onlyness”. We are the only one who make ourselves from our bad and good experiences as you nicely mentioned the example of piano. And this onlyness makes our society lovely. Onlyness creates Lovelyness.
Second, each and every person is important which helps us to create our culture or as you mentioned company. Position has nothing to do with it. Its humanity who plays role. A CEO may not have so deep knowledge about some topic as a newbie hired employee may have.
Thank you very much for such informative article.. 🙂
Well said! Thank you so much for adding your valuable insight to my post.
Realizing this onlyness would make our world the awesome place of tolerance and compassion we only dream about. It could replace our current nation’s measure of success — GDP — which is based on consumption, job status, money circulation, education…blech. Onlyness would be a truer picture of the human condition, allowing us to erase national borders, celebrate differences rather than separate into categories of similarities, and better put to use each individuals’ talents, whatever they may be.
Everyone has worth, a talent, something beautiful to give to the world, through the collection of experiences that makes you uniquely “you.” I would love to see us all get back to that.
LOL I love her analogy at the end about kicking ass with a moving butt. I’ll have to look for more of her stuff. Thanks again for sharing. 🙂
🙂 Her inspirational posters are fantastic!
I love the way you summed up that last sentence, “Everyone has worth, talent…” Thanks, Shannon!
Reblogged this on Wholeheartedness.
Todd- Thanks!