What is your Perceived Value?

What is your Perceived Value?Dealing with Finances is not something everyone enjoys.  Some of us are even quite nervous about it.  My relationship with money can best be described as a love hate relationship.  It has taken me 49 years to realize that my relationship with money was directly tied to my emotions.  When I felt stable and secure, my bank account reflected that very thing.  When I was sad, or feeling depressed, my bank account also reflected that.  The issue of worthiness also came into play.  I have begun to wrestle with the question of what I think my perceived value is.  How much do I believe I am worth? Of course, the answer to that question is most likely bazillions(yes, I said bazillions) of dollars if our egos had anything to do with it, right?  However, I am talking about my worth in relationship to the world around me.  My contributions, my work, the information I have to offer.  I am so passionate about my work, yet setting a monetary value on that work feels like a contradiction in my heart at times.  I struggled with this for years until I had a conversation with a client of mine.  I shared with her that that the whole Perceived Value Issue was a struggle for me, and she responded by saying:  “Ahh, but it keeps us both accountable!”  How Beautiful is that?  For years, coaches have been telling me that money and my relationship represents my own self worth.  I understood that, but it was still hard for me.  But, accountability?  I can understand that, and it feels fair.  Monetary value brings accountability to both me and the people I serve.

Paying for services or information, makes all of us accountable for that knowledge.  Paying for food, makes us accountable not to waste it.  I am beginning to understand this relationship more as I grow older and have more experience to draw from.  The same is true for the other end of the spectrum too.  If you are trading a service of any kind for monetary value, that value holds you accountable to be precise, passionate, and in integrity with yourself and those you serve.

Self worth is not defined by monetary means but by accountability, trust, integrity, and other traits that allow us to have inner peace and expansive ideas.  However, without accountability, those things have no container in which to sit.

Perceived Value can fluctuate.  It is always in transit.  It represents our past, present, and future.  Our Perceived Value is growing constantly, and in return is nurtured by accountability.  This lesson continues to be one that brings me both pain and joy in the midst of my own accountability and my own perceived value.

May Today be the Tomorrow you always dreamed of…

Angel