“What I bring to the table is rich”

“What I bring to the table is rich.”

Those words are from Detra, the latest subject of a Humans of New York series (if you haven’t read it yet, go to @humansofny on Instagram and go through the photos of the fabulous woman smoking a cigar).

Her words keep sticking with me. They reveal a woman who knows her own worth, who isn’t waiting for permission to love how she shows up in the world.

This past week, I’ve been trying her words on for size. Sitting in front of a blank page, or sending my writing out into the world, I remind myself that what I bring to the table is rich. It feels freeing, but also audacious. Am I the one who gets to decide that?

So many of us have been told that what we bring to the table is not good enough. Or that we shouldn’t make too big of a deal about it. Or that, actually, we should probably just stay away from the table altogether.

But those voices are not kind, and they certainly aren’t very interesting.

If our worth wasn’t up for question, just imagine how much space that would free up in our minds. How much easier it would be to try new things. How much more fun we would have.

So try it on for size — this deep knowing that what you bring to the table is rich — and see what happens.