Spend more time celebrating your worth than proving it.

​Albert Einstein said “The definition of 'insanity' is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Based on Einstein's definition, I've come to believe trying to prove our worth is an act of insanity. The minute we prove to one person we are someone worth celebrating, a new person will pop up that we'll feel the need to prove our worth to all over again.

We can make a life out of proving our worth: I can get the grades, I can get the promotion, I can make the money, I can win the race - we can spend our whole life proving to everyone around us we are worth celebrating - and get to the end of that life never having once celebrated our own worth.

It may be the way we most overcomplicate being human - failing to see the inherent beauty and worth in simply being human.

I think about my running journey. In the beginning of it, I was obsessed with keeping up with the other guys and girls, in proving I belonged in the running community, chasing down milestones and benchmarks that would make the case that I'm worth celebrating as a runner.

Then one day, I realized I deserved to have running in my life. It made me feel healthier, it made me feel more connected to people, it motivated me to chase down dreams inside and out of the sport. One day I realized running wasn't my avenue to be celebrated by others, running was the clearest avenue ever to intimately understanding my own humanity.

A humanity worth the beauty running added to it.

A humanity worth celebrating.

This day after Martin Luther King Jr. day, I reflect on his life. On the surface, he may appear to have been a guy out to prove his worth. In reality, though, he was a guy who absolutely KNEW his worth. He KNEW he wasn't defined by his color, but by the simply breath-taking beauty of his own humanity.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s fight didn't start with the idea of proving his worth - it started with a man who deeply knew it and celebrated it. It was his celebration of his humanity that led him to fight to be treated humanely.

You are human. You are up this morning and moving around - a complex and divine creation. Forget the rest of the world for just a second and comprehend for just a second what an amazing creature you are. No feelings or thoughts or emotions - yours or your neighbor's - can undo the amazingness of that.

So start the day celebrating you - you the creation - full of worth. And just maybe - maybe - that will prevent you from feeling like you have to prove that to anyone today.