Episode 95: A NEW YARDSTICK: HOW DO YOU MEASURE SUCCESS AND SELF-WORTH?

In hard times, you can be forced to examine your life focus and priorities. If you've tended to define success and self-worth by the amount of your wealth and material possessions, you can find that these resources aren't enough to personally sustain you through a crisis. Other resources are needed, as well as a better balance between the "tangibles" and "intangibles". From a blog post written during the Great Recession, Peter and Jenny draw a parallel to today's pandemic and economic crisis. Our culture can overemphasize money and wealth. What is the best way to measure success, progress, and self-worth? In the first segment of this podcast, Peter and Jenny introduce our topic and highlight key issues. In the second segment, we share another portion of our recent conversation with singer, songwriter, missionary and international aid worker Randy Mayfield. Which personal qualities and values has Randy seen refugees in the Middle East and Africa make a priority in hard times? How do they respond and cope while experiencing deprivation and atrocities? Our discussion during the third segment includes thoughts on the personal qualities necessary to sustain ourselves and succeed during hard times. We talk about feelings of "impoverishment" and what they can really mean. What will help us become truly resilient? Questions from our final segment: 1) How is it that money can come to represent so many things - like status, security, or love?, 2) Why does our American culture place such an emphasis on money and wealth?, and 3) What are the more meaningful ways to measure personal success and self-worth? Randy Mayfield: https://www.randymayfield.com/