I’m trying this year to maintain (or exceed) a minimum level of fitness which means that even when I travel I need to find time to get in some exercise. This explains why I found myself jogging around Emancipation Park while on a business trip to Jamaica. After completing my targeted mileage, I stopped to take a look at the famous sculpture at the entrance to the park.
As I gazed at the towering statues, I was entranced by their beauty and I could not help wondering how many people might not share my opinion. Of course, being in the home of Bob Marley, his famous words skanked into my mind, “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our mind.”
The opinion we have of ourselves is arguably the most powerful limit on our potential. The fact that strong, beautiful, rich, powerful, free Africans came to think of themselves as anything less, and that some still do even decades after the abolition of slavery is testament to the power of mental shackles. How do you value yourself when you have been brainwashed into thinking that your worth is set by how much someone else is willing to pay for you? Isn’t it interesting how that statement could apply to any one of us in the world of work today?
Most of us may not labour under a low self-image due to the colour of our skin but maybe we have other chains? Income? Gender? Class? Wealth? Academic intelligence? Athletic ability? Social status? Whatever it is, it does not determine our worth.
The issue is; how do you determine your worth? Does your worth rise or fall with your bank account? Is it determined by your deeds (good or bad)? Is it your family name or academic achievements? Perhaps you are caught in the corporate hamster wheel that chains your self-worth to your career success? Maybe you are juggling a career, husband and children and your self-worth undulates with how well you are keeping the balls in the air this week?
We will act based on who we believe we are. If we think we are bad, we will be bad. If we think we are poor, we will be poor. If we believe we are not worthy, we will settle for whatever we can get. How can we break free?
I suppose each of us will have to find our own answer to the question of worth. I found my answer in God. I believe that each one of us has been created by a Divine Hand. Every hair, every cell, every quirk of personality a masterpiece of unique beauty and inestimable value. The mere fact that no two human beings on a planet of billions are exactly alike is to me pore raising. If the Upholder of Galaxies thought you a necessary ingredient to the space-time continuum then who am I to say anything different!
None of us have to do anything to prove our worth. We are already precious! And therefore, we are free; free to live the truth of who we already are! There is nothing stopping us! No limiting circumstances or missing ingredients! Break the shackles of your mind! Live free!
Joyfully,
Copyright 2018, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.