What is your Self Worth?

While coaching High Potential Executives, I find one common "leadership de-railer" Its the want to be a perfectionist

A Perfectionist is someone who fails to recognize when something is “good enough” and is obsessive or uncompromising about a situation or outcome.

My coaching conversations with such individuals find their way into talking aboutSelf Worth.

Self-worth may be seen as a continuum from very high to very low. For Carl Rogers (1959) a person who has high self-worth, has confidence and positive feelings about him or her self, faces challenges in life, accepts failure and unhappiness at times, and is open with people. A person with low self-worth may avoid challenges in life, not accept that life can be painful and unhappy at times, and will be defensive and guarded with other people.

Rogers also believed feelings of self-worth developed in early childhood and were formed from the interaction of the child with the mother and father. As a child grows older, interactions with significant others will affect feelings of self-worth.

The ultimate test of self worth is how one handles rejection. The underlying root cause of striving to be perfect is to avoid rejection at any cost. One can deal with rejection, when one has built up ones self worth to a degree where rejection is a part of life and something to learn from

The question one has to ask oneself is what do I need to do to feel a sense of high self worth?

For some people this could be talking to someone who is an unconditional supporter, or immersing oneself in a hobby one loves - painting or composing a piece of music. Find what works for you. Ensure you have set aside time to do that everyday.

Second, learn to silence the "inner critic". You can stop and focus on something else. Do this over and over again , until you realise you have the choice of "not feeling a sense on rejection"