The urge to prove my worth (or sneer at someone else’s) has caused me to miss out on much of my life. In my mind, worth is a given, which is why I suspect Buddha didn’t justify his worth in Mara’s third challenge–if he tried to justify it, he would have implicitly acknowledged that his existential worth was dependent on external judgment.

So I can choose to focus on the amorphous, ever-subjective concept of worth, mine or another’s, or focus on releasing internal resistance and internal struggle. I’ve found that to be my priority nowadays–not so much learning and striving (for what reason, exactly, in this possibly infinite existence where I’ll be another iteration of stardust in the cosmic blink of an eye?), but unrestrainedly experiencing the present-moment unfolding of events, even if that may appear to be learning or strife.