The desire to prove ourselves feels like it is baked into our human nature.

In every area of life, it feels like we have something to prove.

So it makes sense for that to become our focus.

We want to prove ourselves in our jobs, as a spouse, as a parent, etc.

But what if we changed our focus from proving ourselves to improving ourselves?

I do not think it is bad to want to prove yourself.

Ultimately, it shows that you want something and that you want to meet the requirements it takes to become "“proven.”

But I do not think it is a good long term goal.

Focusing on proving yourself is short sighted and it is typically left in the hands of others.

You can work incredibly hard and be very successful in your job. You can hit every metric and blow every quarterly review out of the water.

Only to be passed up on the promotion for some unknown reason.

Trying to prove yourself is like trying to aim at a moving target.

Instead, our focus should be on improvement.

Day in and day out. Just getting better.

Stacking the little improvements and adjustments you are making every single day.

That should be the focus.

Once we commit to improving over proving, you actually start proving yourself.

Not to get approval from others but to get approval from yourself.

“As you go through life try to improve yourself, not prove yourself.” - Ward Clever, Leave it to Beaver

Go out and make a difference.