About Value

I got an email today with a little narrative in it.
It was from something I signed up to a long time ago,
but I forget what it was. Some email marketing thing, I guess.

Anyway, the story goes:

During a seminar, a speaker holds up a 20 dollar bill.
He asks: "Who wants this $20?"
About 200 hands go up.

So he crumples it up and says:
"Who still wants this $20?"
They all still raised their hands.

So he takes it and he throws it on the ground
and stomps on it.
He asks: "Who still wants this $20?"
They all still put their hands up.

The moral of the narrative was to show that
whatever happened to the $20 didn't change its value.
It was still worth $20.

I read a while back, somewhere,
that no matter what happens to us, our souls are still intact.
No matter how anyone sees us,
no matter how we see ourselves,
no matter what we think, or how we feel,
our souls are still intact.

Deep down, I know I am worth at least something.
Deep down, I know I deserve better than being treated the way I have been.
I deserve better than being taken for granted, ignored, hit, hurt, all that sh*t.
Tossed like I mean nothing at all. Etc.

"I'll do my best to be a good friend to you..."
I've heard it before....

Knowing things and feeling them are two different things.
But then one might argue that if I truly knew them,
feeling them wouldn't be an issue.

Then this question:
How motivated are you to set yourself free?

I asked someone once what they thought determined motivation.
They said it depends how much you believe in it.

Then I asked him what he thought determines
if you believe in something or not.
He didn't reply.

Probably because the second question is harder to answer
than the first question.

There are a few things I read today that I wanted to write about.
Coupled with some things I'm thinking about today.

Awareness, courage, and decision
need to be coupled with action

"Recipes don't bake cookies, you do."
"Bluprints don't build bridges, people do."

I want to add to this because I think belief plays a huge rule
in whether or not someone takes action.
If someone believes in their abilities,
they are more likely to use those abilities
and to develop more abilities.

ABCD...
Awareness, Belief, Courage, Decision.

Maybe change courage to confidence.
Hard to make decisions without confidence
and hard to have confidence without self-belief,
and hard to start believing in yourself
when you're unaware of your value.

There are a couple other things.

"We all have a tendancy to be professional wrigglers.
Most of us have an invested interested in wriggling off the hook.
But every time we do, we hold back growth.
Which means cheating ourselves of the thing we want and need.
Wholeness."

I see wriggling off the hook as resistance.
We don't want to be bait and we don't want to be consumed.
But it's not about that. It's about fishing, actually.
You're the hook, not the worm on it.
So no need to wriggle off of what you are.
That's the part that they don't tell you, but I just did.

One more thing...

"Your belief system about you is the touchstone
to how you experience life."

I agree with this 100%.
Our feelings about ourselves come from our beliefs about ourselves.
I struggle with this every single day.
My self-esteem has always been very low.
It doesn't have to stay low, or be low for the rest of my life.
One day I might feel great about myself.
Not to the point of bragging or whatever. That's never been my thing.
In fact, arrogance really turns me off.
I really hate gloating and bragging.
People throwing or rubbing things in my face.
It's one thing to be happy or whatever,
but it's another thing to like hold it over someone who isn't.
Why flaunt what you got at someone who doesn't have that?

I had this happen to me recently. I won't get into details.
They don't actually matter.
I might use it for an example eventually, but other than that,
it doesn't really matter.
I just have a hard time understanding that level of ignorance.

But, remember $20 is still $20. Even if a semi runs over it.