When You're Undervalued

Assalaamu'alaikum wonderful people.

How's life? Hope you stay wonderful as always. In this post I'd like to talk about being undervalued. This is the state that I get quite often in my professional life as a teacher. This judgment might be different person-to-person, but in my opinion, every one has the right to make judgment on something as long as they can provide supporting evidence.

Let's now figure out what undervalued means. According to Cambridge Dictionary, undervalued means being considered less valuable or important than we really are. In other words, people judge us to have less potentials than we actually do. Or, people just think that we can do a few things only, meanwhile we are sure that we can do more than that. 

The question is, 'How could that happen?' The answers may vary. Different places and time count. However, in general, at least there are two points of view that we can take a look at. From our point of view, we may think that people do not know all we the things can do but they do not want to give us opportunities to do that. They do not give us time to prove that we can. They only think about our ability and quality from their previous judgment from the past. Here they think that we cannot change and be a better version of ourselves. This kind of thought is really normal to be found in people of the eastern world, including Indonesia. People would not easily change there judgment even if we have changed a lot. So, it is really hard for someone to get an 'updated' judgment even if they have changed.

Now let's take a look at it from the opposite point of view. Although 'Don't judge a book by its cover' is expressed a thousand times, people would commonly make a judgment in that way. Therefore, they would not judge us as who we really are. And they value us based on their judgment. It is no wonder that only a part of us which they know, and that may become the base when they would interact and work with us. Another condition also takes into account. People need evidence about our ability, skills, and quality. In short, they need to know ouur potentials. If we cannot prove them to be true, then we would be undervalued.

Does undervaluing happen to you? What do you feel about it? Wanting this to stop happening? Yes, me too. 

I would give you some advice that is not scientifically based on research, but I lay these more on my personal believe and experience about the subject. Let's discuss this one by one.

First, the state of not given an opportunity. This happens quite a lot to almost all of us, I believe. Therefore, do not wait until an opportunity comes. Create your own opportunity. You can find another place where you can show off your potentials. Do not let your potentials deeply buried. You should fight for them the space to take place. Do not get stuck in one place. Your potentials might deserve more than what you have today. Maybe, one day, the people you are working with currently would regret someday fot not seeing and taking advantage of those potentials.

Second, when you are assigned to do something, make the most of your potentials. Make sure to break down your work and get every detail finished according to  the timeline you have set. I believe that if you can do it, your work is well done. When you're able to do it, you'll gain some respect and positive judgment on you. And, in the end, you'll be appropriately valued.

Third, do not stop learning about anything you like and anything you have to learn. Read books, watch YouTube videos, attend trainings and workshops, and do not get tired of doing that. If you're tired, stop for a while, go for a picnic or go traveling a little bet. When you get yourself recharged, get back to work.

That's all I can say about being undervalued and the simple-old tricks how to cope with that. Again, this is not scientific, but instead, it's my pure my personal judgment. But remember, however shallow my thoughts are, they're still critical and make sense.

Wassalaamu'alaikum. Stay wonderful.