The other day I uploaded a design in progress to Dribble, and, since I hadn’t been on dribble in quite a while, I started looking around. It’s such a beautiful and colorful place it can really be inspiring! But this time it wasn’t so magical for me.
While I was browsing other people’s work, even people who liked my post, I started thinking “is my work good enough?” There’s so much great work here and I just feel like mine sucks in comparison.
I started writing about how I felt. It’s something I’ve been doing when things get me off balance. Writing helps me process things that would otherwise remain internal. As I wrote it helped me make sense of the mess going on in my head.
My train of thought began with “is my work good enough?” and as I unpacked that phrase, I came to “does my work matter?” and finally, “do I matter?”
In my writing, I realized I fear that if people don’t accept and approve my work, then they don’t accept or approve me, and that makes me wonder if I matter. I have a problem separating my work from my worth. I really enjoy making things and I take my work seriously, but often times I flirt with the line of letting my work (and people’s response to my work) define who I am.
As I write this, I’m reminded of a design I made in the past that helps me remember to separate the two when I drift towards unhealthy thinking. It simply says “your worth is not measured by the things that you do.” I set it as my wallpaper from time to time when I need the extra reminder. (If you’d like a copy, you can grab one here).
I encourage you to separate your work from your worth. I’m hoping to do the same.