The Man Who Knocked on Every Door but His Own

"Your worth was never handed to you by a crowd. Your worth is inherent, rooted in the unchanging truth of who you are at your core."

A man carried a heavy iron key around his neck, and for forty years he forgot what it was for.

He spent those years knocking on other people's doors. He knocked on the door of his boss's approval, his father's pride and the neighbors' admiration. Each time, someone cracked the door, looked him over and said, "Not yet."

So he knocked harder and worked longer. He made himself smaller in every room, hoping to be let in.

One winter night, exhausted, he sat on the step of the plain little house he had lived in all along. The key swung forward against his chest. He looked at it, then at the lock in front of him, and tried it.

The door opened.

Nothing about him had changed except what he finally noticed. He had never lacked worth. He had lacked the habit of believing it was his.

A word about self-respect, since it lives in the same house: it is not arrogance. It is the quiet "no" you say to being spoken to carelessly, to favors that cost your peace, and to rooms where you must shrink to stay. You don't say it loudly. You say it by leaving, or by simply not volunteering for the pain again. Peace is guarded, and respect is the guard.

Look at what you have been knocking on, and ask who really holds that key.

Your mind is wiser now, share this piece to enrich the mind of your people.