“Get out of the way of yourself.”
I’ve been told this on various occasions. It is a striking directive, for it suggests that we are greater than our anxious minds.
The way we speak about our lives matters. If we identify ourselves as the roles we occupy, then invariably our self worth will be inextricably linked to what we do—though the “doing” of our lives changes over time. “I am an artist” is different than the statement, “I create artwork.” The words we repeat become our beliefs, our values, and in many cases our identities.
It is important to pay attention to how we speak to ourselves. We are not the roles we undertake; our value is much more vast. Though we may be creators and healers and teachers and leaders, none of these is ultimately who we are.
Our roles shape our lives, but we shouldn’t allow these to quantify our self value. Our self worth is inherent just because we are here, just because we are human—and we’re most strongly connected to our life force when we simply get out of the way.
I have found in retirement that I have performed many different jobs in my life and have always enjoyed a positive sense of accomplishment. I hope I have touched many people in a positive way. This is what I have tried to strive for and am still doing my best to continue this quest.
I always thought that being a teacher was who I was, not what I did. It actually took retirement to realize there was more to me than being a teacher. A lot of that comes from people asking “what did you do- your job”? We are the sum of our parts and we are always adding parts to that sum. Sherrill Hall