You are not what you do

I have been thinking a lot about this- a lot of us try to do more and more because we have somehow imbibed this erroneous belief that we are as good as the work we put in, whereas that is not true. It is hard to change such a deep-seated belief.. this poem is as much for me as it is for the reader

You probably learnt this and internalized it too

That you are, at the end, what you do…

Therefore to be a better version of yourself you think

You need to do more, bringing yourself to the brink

Of exhaustion and burnout trying to find

Something you do by which you can be defined

But… you are not what you do, though

It is hard to let this deep-seated belief go

Do what you can without emptying yourself out

You are who you are, with or without

All the work that you do, the hours you put in

Just take a deep breath and let it sink in

When you detach your self-image from what you do

You will be a more confident, relaxed version of you