“Coming to know your worth doesn’t just change you. It changes the way you see everyone else because you can see their worth too.” Portia Louder
Self-Leadership requires that we understand our self-worth.
I remember hearing a story of a man who was looking for a place to move his family. He stopped in a small town and asked one of the townsfolk what kind of people lived there. The man asked the visitor what kind of people lived in the town he came from. He was told it was an unfriendly town with a lot of gossips. Nobody knew their neighbors or had respect for anyone’s property. The man then told the visitor, “Well, it’s pretty much the same here.”
A few days later another man, seeking to move his family, stopped in the same small town and spoke with the same man. He was asked the same question. This man responded “The town I come from has the friendliest neighbors you’ll meet anywhere. Everyone is willing to help, and we feel safe day and night”. The man from the small town responded with a handshake and a smile, “Well, you’ll find it’s pretty much the same here.”
It’s true that we get what we are looking for. If we teach our children to look for the best in the world then that is likely what they will find. But if we teach them that the world is an evil, ugly place that is what they will find.
Likewise, if we teach our youth that they have value, they come from greatness and have greatness built into them, they will automatically reach for greatness. If they are told that they will not amount to anything, that their past was filled with failure, grief, and pain and by default they are destined to follow in the same path, that is what they find.
As we help our youth learn self-leadership, we have to remember that the vision we give them of themselves is the vision they will have of the world.