Our Internal Scorecard

 

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Our Internal Scorecard

In this highly competitive world, we all seek external validation for our work. We love it when people praise us or our work. All this external validation is very good for marketing ourselves in our professional lives, some of this validation comes at a price, as we also pay for the ‘certification’! Apart from this external validation we also have an internal scorecard, which all of us keep. This is the scorecard which tells us how we have really performed – this is the scorecard which makes us happy internally, which makes our soul happy. This is the real scorecard – you can never fool it. If you get a high internal rating it is good, else you need to look at ways to do things in such a way that raises your internal score.

Ralph Waldo Emerson had said, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” This statement is so true as we all try to achieve something or become something which goes against everything we really believe in, all this to make others happy. We forget who we are, what we were born for and all join the rat race to become ‘something’!

Grigori Perelman had a question, “Would you rather be the world’s greatest lover, but have everyone think that you are the world’s worst lover? Or would you rather be the world’s worst lover but have everyone think you’re the world’s greatest lover?” Interesting question isn’t it! Most of us want both the things. Not only do we want to be good at what we do, but we also want people to think and acknowledge that we are good. Most of us want other people to think that we are doing well, we like to pull that wool over people’s eyes for whatever social or other recognition that we crave.

In this world which thrives on social media we see all kinds of posts for which we are seeking ‘likes’ from perfect strangers! The social media platforms have also started paying you for the content you post based on ad revenue generated. All this makes people write, record and post all kinds of stuff to gain recognition – all this external recognition gives your ego an artificial boost and you start craving for such ‘likes’ and get disturbed if they are not forthcoming! We start depending more and more on what people think about us rather than what we think about ourselves! Our internal or inner scorecard is intrinsic to us. It defines who we are at the core of our values and beliefs.

When we live with our internal scorecard for validation, we focus on being the most authentic and genuine version of ourself that we are and doing the right things instead of doing what others want us to do.

The real world requires a mindset of knowing who we really are and working with our internal scorecard. Even if you do everything right, the reaction of others is likely to crush you – as jealousy, disrespect, annoyance comes to the fore! Without an internal scorecard such reactions could crush you. The world is not bothered with what you do, but you can find joy and satisfaction in your work because of your internal scorecard – you do not have to look anywhere else for joy and happiness but within!