Just How Much Are You Worth?

 Admirer to the Artist: “Wow! This painting is so beautiful! How long did it take for you to create this?”

Artist: “72 years.” 

I recently heard this on a podcast in the context of determining one’s worth or value, and I felt like it really resonated with me. As a psychologist, it is difficult (sometimes) to put a monetary value on the hourly rate that we are “worth.” Am I worth $60 an hour? $125 an hour? $200 an hour? More??? 

I’ve struggled with this over the past year and mentally explored many different perspectives on assigning value or worth to what I do for a living. I’ve even calculated the hourly wage with consideration of vacation, sick, and military leave time, and I’ve tried to include the monetary value of the VA’s contribution to my Thrift Saving Plan (I don’t use their insurance but that is a whole other consideration). Of course, these are all just numbers and can be a rabbit hole to which there is no end. 

So, to put the above quote into context: I heard this on a podcast I routinely listen to and the speaker was talking to the listener who was trying to determine what his work was worth. He was trying to give measure to his creativity, effort, drive, motivation, and experience, and the overall tone of the conversation was that he was underestimating his worth. The speaker told this story of a friend of hers who is an artist and had created a beautiful painting. The speaker was admiring the art and inquiring about what it took to create such a beautiful masterpiece! The answer from the artist?.…. 72 years. I snickered and chuckled a bit to myself. Perhaps the painting was actually painted in 72 hours? But the artist had 72 YEARS of experience, creativity, failures, successes, lessons learned, hardships, setbacks, and the development of genuine talent to create the masterpiece along with the wisdom to her craft. 

Years matter. Lived experience matters. And the culmination of all of that is the true definition of your value or worth. It’s still hard to put a dollar figure on that, but at least considering the idea helps me to be a little more generous with myself. 

I know there will be a day when dollars don’t matter…. and some days, that’s today. When I share some wisdom or experience with a young woman in her late 20s or 30s, and I can see the light bulb go off that says, “wait, what? I don’t have to live like this? This isn’t the way it has to be?” I feel like I’ve used my experience, time, and talent to create a masterpiece. 

Observations from the Other Side: of Leadership

 “Good leaders use the tools they have to take care of their people. And they persist… until the job is done.”  -Me

During my time as Chief Psychologist, I was given the feedback “you are so persistent” or “you just never gave up on that” or “wow, I didn’t ever think that would be resolved but you made it happen”…. and the one I appreciated the most: “thank you for doing everything you could to help me and make it right. You have no idea what that means to me.” 

I learned early on that I needed a folder in my Outlook called “Things to Follow Up On.” I would send an email to try to help resolve a situation or problem, and then I would immediately move that Sent email into this folder. I checked the folder about twice a week, and when I would notice that it had been 3-5 days  (or a week? whatever seemed appropriate) since not receiving a response, I would send a follow up email. This was one of my many strategies for ‘taking care of business’ in a work world that has so many excessive and unnecessary barriers to progress. It’s the government…. embrace the suck and find a way to work around it. 

I’m just a worker bee now. A psychologist seeing patients, providing the best mental health treatment I can, and… well, I guess I could still say, “taking care of business.” Just serving a different population… Veterans instead of Employees. 

I am currently serving on a committee that is designed to provide feedback to leadership about what employees need, want, and see as problems within the organization. The process is a very good one while the reality is that many leaders tend to “pencil whip it” (a term I was introduced to in the military). They (and we; I’m guilty of it too) just throw together a response or sign off on something that they don’t really review, understand, or take stock in. As a former boss used to say, we “drink from a fire hose,” which means they don’t pay attention to some of the things that could, actually, reduce some of the fires they deal with everyday. I totally get it, and I empathize… I lived it. 

Too often we hear, “we can’t do that because….” (insert some historical event/process/former leader’s practice). Challenging the status quo is probably one of my strengths. Sometimes strengths can get us in trouble, but I just can’t help myself from asking, “but Why?” If the answer is “because it’s always been done this way” or “the committee has always denied that.” My response is: maybe we need to take a look at how the system is set up; let’s take a look at the policy, the regulation, or the directive, or (at the very least) what’s the right thing to do. 

Great leaders have empathy. And persistence. Maybe even to a fault? I don’t know? where do we draw the line in being “too much” or to “know our place”? The line for this old girl just keeps moving in the direction of taking care of business for the people. Because those people are taking care of the people who matter most: the Veterans. 

Persistence eventually pays off…. never give up. And get the job done.