What Defines You?

For a good chunk of my life, my work has been the definition that I've used for myself.  What I'm doing, who I'm doing it with, and who I'm doing it for have all been the yardstick by which I'd measure my worth.

What a mistake.

Work?  With so very much which is out of one's control?  With so much wasted activity that, twenty years from now (let alone two hundred), won't amount to anything?  That's my worth?

The more experience I've had, the more I've found that work is a lot of things outside of my control.  And what's in my control?

• How I treat others
• Making things better, not worse (or the same)
• Who I spend my time with, and how I spend it

I refuse to let crappy work circumstances define how I perceive myself.  And if others use them to define me, they're going to miss a lot.

And that's their loss.