Do we apportion value where we should?
This is something I have wondered often over the last few months and having the time to reflect leads me to a conclusion I’m not overly happy with. I believe many women do not place enough value where they should and perhaps too much where it is not deserving. Time out during “lockdown” has been apart from anything else a great moment to redefine our value system.
Many components I have been debating have become clear to me – where I valued my time, how I spent my relaxation, where I spent my income and so many other small and large decisions. In many cases, I didn’t really love my answers. I worked too much and probably ineffectively, exercise, for the right reasons, wasn’t the priority it should have been and my expenditure was often not that advantageous. Nothing major here we don’t see on a daily basis but it does equate with our value systems and where we grab our “buzz”.
Women traditionally are the masters of devaluation.
How often do we second-guess us? Not trust our very finely honed instincts and run with what we think we should be doing rather than what we truly believe or would like to do. If we believe in our own worth, value us, then anything is possible and achievable. Right?
That’s the Better, Not Younger approach.
Then there is the placing of too much value on the meaningless and unimportant.
Shock or significant change, like the pandemic, can be a trigger to re-set our value system if we watch out for the prompts. Sadly, many of us ignore these and carry on regardless. It’s natural to stay with what you know for a certain amount of time but it’s dangerous to ignore a shift permanently. I know for me this re-set has come at the right time. I’m not one to take too much for granted, at least I hope so, but a re-alignment never hurts.
Know the difference. What is important to you?
There is so much value in having fun and that is both meaningful and important. Readjusting our values doesn’t mean we need to suck the air out of a room with our darkness or kill a mood with our seriousness. It’s more time and place – and thought. Taking time to think things through and apportioning them where they belong.
I want to value the “value” of everything, take nothing for granted and trust myself when I feel instinct kick in. There is a large canvas to how we live and let’s not lose sight and paint it by numbers. Knowing where to place value truly does enable our creativity to flow.
If nothing else we need to take a bow and revel in our own value. xv
