Ever heard that old saying; "If you want something done right, do it yourself." I'm sure that most of you have heard it before and if you haven't, then I'm glad you heard it here for the first time. Now in regards to that statement, it is indeed a very true one. In fact, I'm sure you know or have been around someone that has expressed displeasure with how you done something, but didn't take out the time to do it themselves. Kinda makes me think back to high school when other students criticized those of us that tried out for the basketball team, but were too scared to give it a go themselves. I think I may be onto something using the basketball analogy, and how it relates to my topic this time around. Hmm! This is Brad H., and you're tuned into another edition of 'Brad H's Perspective'. As always, thanks for stopping through, and also for bearing with me in my month long absence. So I titled this post 'Being Your Own MVP' right? I also made a basketball reference in the first paragraph of this post. You're probably thinking that I'm referring to being an MVP in basketball like LeBron James or Kobe Bryant right? Absolutely not! Although I like the basketball reference and the fact that it somewhat coincides with the points I'm trying to make, I'm definitely not talking about being an MVP in sports. In fact, I'm not a LeBron James nor Kobe Bryant fan. I'm talking about being your own Most Valuable Player in the most important game that any one of us will ever take part in. I'm talking about the game of life.
When an athlete receives the MVP award in their respective sport, they've been deemed the most talented and popular player in that sport for that time period. The recipient of the MVP award can change on a year basis, although there have been athletes to win the award multiple times in their respective sport. The difference with being your own personal MVP in life is that it's an award you have to appoint to yourself. Nobody gives it to you, nor is it an actual trophy or plaque. It's primarily a mental state of how you view yourself in this world, and how much worth and value you feel you have.
I think that a lot of us in life rely too much on validation from other people in respects to how worthy we feel we are. Instead of listening to ourselves, we spend too much time listening to what others think of us. For example, you see a lot of women who go for a certain look, or dress a certain way to impress others and gain attention. Many of them take the compliments they receive as validation for being attractive, when it really doesn't matter if a guy or anyone for that matter finds them attractive or not. Same thing with a lot of guys, and I'll admit that I've been guilty of trying to do the following before. A lot of guys spend a lot of time working out and trying to achieve a physique that we feel will make us more appealing to women, when a lot of these women could careless about how our body may look. Now I'm not saying that all men and women do this, but what does these two examples have in common? They both involve partaking in something that we feel will validate ourselves.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's not about how other people view you. It's all about how you view yourself. Of course we all should appreciate compliments of praise from others, but the view that we have about ourselves should always start within us first. We can't always rely on other people for validation. That's an obvious sign of insecurity. Instead, we have to work on being our own MVP, and recognizing our self-worth without the cosign of other people. Now don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that others pointing out positive things about you shouldn't be a confidence booster. All I'm saying is let those compliments and positive feedback from others be an addition to what should already be there. Think of it as an expansion of positive messages.
So to sum it all up, focus on becoming your own MVP. It all starts and begins within us. We have to always recognize our self-worth first. It's perfectly okay to struggle with this, but hopefully we're pointing ourselves in the right direction. Well that's it for this 'Brad H's Perspective' blog posting. I hope that you enjoyed it, and also gained some kind of fulfillment from it. Thanks again for tuning in, and I'll see you all again in the next one. Peace!
