Your worth isn't determined by your work

Hello gorgeous, I’m so happy to be back and hanging out with you this a-bit-too-techy Wednesday morning. You’re looking rested and glowy. I know the past couple of weeks have been a lot. Seriously, I take one vacation and old white men decide to take away women’s bodily autonomy. I can’t have one bloody cortado in Lisbon without some limp-wristed, loose-necked dude named Clyde trying to drag us back to the 60s. We’ll get into it, but before we do I want to chat a little on what I learned while I was away.

But isn’t this what the money is for?

Before I left on vacation I was lamenting to a friend about how hard it is to leave your company for a vacation as an entrepreneur. You miss opportunities and revenue. It feels irresponsible.

She looked at me with a smirk, and said: “But isn’t this what the money is for?”

I thought, fuck, you're right. Of course that's what it's for. Yes, money is for essentials, but we don’t work so hard just to chase more of it. Our work needs to be for more than accolades and 0s in a bank account. It needs to be for cultivating a life.

Hustle culture teaches us that our worth is determined by our achievement and output. We have drunk that shitty Kool-Aid from bros in blazers and sneakers for years. Filled with anxiety, and dreading mediocracy, we work harder and harder to prove our value to a system that doesn't care about our happiness.

We ask people “what do you do?” right after their name. It allows us to place them on the ladder we're climbing, whether or not they want on. We base our own value and the value of those in our lives on work.

This culture has taught us to be humans doing. We forget about the being part so easily.

Your worth isn’t determined by your work. I’ll say it again because it’s a hard pill to swallow for us type A achievers.

Your worth isn’t determined by your work.

Your worth isn't determined by how many emails you answered today, the promotion you're up for, if you're part of the 5 am club, your title, or your economic success. It's just fucking not.

Your worth is determined by the life you craft for yourself and for the ones you love. How much learning, growth, magic, joy, exploration, love, laughter, and fun you build into your life.

This is your one beautiful life; make it a big one. Because I promise, no one will mention how busy or important you were in your eulogy.