What is Your Value - by Sean Michael Paquet

What makes you Valuable?

 OK, this post will be a little more about the self than it does about business, but the concepts still apply. 

What makes you valuable? What do you value about yourself? What do other people that know you appreciate about you?

Value. We can go on and on about friendship, love, partnership, and other similar concepts, but at the end of the day, it all boils down to value.

What is your value to yourself, to other people, to the community? We all want to feel valuable. We want to know that we matter. Not just to ourselves, but also that our presence is valued. We want to know that somehow we contribute to the communal consciousness.

What makes you valuable are your strengths. Those qualities about you that make you stand out from the slowly moving herd of humanity around you. Your strengths are what make you unique. That is your value.

Firstly, YOU must see YOU as valuable to YOURSELF. This requires a great deal of self-reflection. You have to take a hard, honest look at yourself by looking inside yourself. You have to see all of your perceived good, and all of your perceived bad. You have to find value within yourself and identify those things that make you stand out. Too often, people will take on the personification of people who they like, or they seek admiration or approval from. This is called “Mirroring,” and it is indicative of you not acknowledging your Shadow Self. You would instead find validation from outside of yourself than to recognize those things within you that makes you stand out from the crowd. Mirroring is what people do to fit in with the group. That is you hiding because you do not value yourself. What you show other people through mirroring is not you. It’s them. Someone good at mirroring is nothing more than a chameleon. They will always change to suit the environment they are in or the people they find themselves around most often.

Do not be afraid to be yourself. Do not be scared to look at yourself.  Those things that you do not like about yourself or that other people say they do not like about you are probably some of your most endearing qualities. For instance, and I will use myself as an example. The people who know me and love me will say that I am:

Stubborn

Complicated

Over-Emotional

Weird

So you might think to yourself that “stubborn” is a negative trait. However, when you do some slight behavior modification to where you are more flexible about certain things, that “stubborn” can be construed as “determined, tenacious, and focused.”

Am I complicated and weird? Hell, yes, I am complicated! Thanks for saying that! I have a brain wired to think of dozens of things at the same time. I see pictures and images in my mind, and that’s how I write my stories. I have a ridiculously high amount of education. I spent 30 years traveling the world both in uniform and as a civilian defense contractor. I practice meditation, study metaphysics, and I write about the weird stuff no one thinks about. Of course, I am complicated. I, however, prefer the term “enlightened” or perhaps “well-informed.” Both of those sound much better and increase my sense of self-worth.

Over-emotional. Well yeah. I am OK with that. I have been in the presence of people who have no sense of empathy whatsoever. However, I prefer to look at my self as “compassionate toward my fellow humans.”

So you see, even those things that people see in you or you see in yourself as unfavorable are very important positive qualities.

In the same light, some of your greatest strengths may be quite subtle. For instance, I have always been very good at planning and strategy. I am a good organizer. However, it took me until 2017 to realize that I was also an excellent thought organizer. Hence why I started writing. In doing so, perhaps I have found my new calling.

In light of your self-reflection, look at what people ask of you. What do they ask you to do for them?

Take heed of what you love to do. Notice how you are different from others.

For example, I am a very good listener—both in-person and online. I like to help people with their problems, and somehow people know that about me almost before we start conversing. I always try to give good advice when I can, and when I can’t, I do my best to be a caring ear. I empathize with my fellow humans. I care about them. When I can, I try to help them. That is my strength.

I love to write. I will write about anything, anytime, anywhere. That is my passion. Perhaps my most powerful strength.

My overly-emotional compassionate nature makes me unique. It is something that people sense about me. The good ones appreciate me for how I make them feel. The bad ones take advantage of it. However, I would not change my over-emotional empathetic nature. I feel my uniqueness makes me stand out from other people.

The people who know and love me have heard me say this many times, “Our Choices are what Drive the hands of Fate. Make choices for you that honor your journey. No one walks the same way up the mountain. We may walk alongside people for a time, but we are on our own unique journey. Learn from those who walk beside you and move on. Share yourself and your experiences and move on. Always strive to be more. Give more of yourself—honor more of the gifts you have been blessed with.

What is your value?

What makes you feel Valuable?

You do.

ONLY YOU!