Skip to main content

What does "mattering" mean and why is it so important



Have you ever had the experience of feeling like you do not matter? The feeling of not being valued in your team at work, the feeling that your friends don’t really notice you, the feeling that you have nothing of value to add to the project meeting.  I have and it doesn’t feel great.

Mattering is a core human need, a fundamental component of human flourishing.  Gordon Flett, a professor at York University and the author of “The Psychology of Mattering” defines mattering as “more than just a feeling that you belong in a group, but also feeling like the group will miss you if you are not there.”  This might be your family group, your friendship group, your work group. 

The research from Isaac Prilleltensky suggests that to matter means experiencing two similar, but separate, things.  Firstly, we need to feel valued, we feel valued when we feel seen and appreciated by other people. Secondly, we need to feel like we are adding value, adding value allows us to feel relevant and important to the group.   

To feel like we matter we need…

·      Attention – the feeling we get when people notice us and are interested in what is happening in our life  

·      Importance – feeling cared about and feeling like we are important to the person or group

·      Dependence – this is the feeling that other people rely on us, that we are adding value to their lives and we are needed

Because the concept of mattering is held within relationships sometimes it can be hard to know how much we matter.  To help us with this Gordon Flett created a scale called the GMS (General Mattering Scale) and these questions are a helpful place to start.

How important are you to others?

How much do others pay attention to you?

How much would you be missed if you went away?

How interested are others in what you have to say?

How much do other people depend on you?

Feeling like we matter increases self-compassion, we are more satisfied with our relationships, and we have a greater confidence in our ability to achieve.  This ultimately means we are prepared to take more chances to enrich our lives.  Feeling like we don’t matter, on the other hand, is associated with a much louder inner critic, higher levels of anxiety and depression, greater burnout rates and an increased risk of suicide. Feeling like we don’t matter is incredibly painful and has far reaching consequence on all aspects of our lives.    

This can feel quite scary to read.  Especially if we feel like we don’t matter in the important areas of our lives – our families, our friends, our jobs.  And while much of our core mattering comes from our early childhood experiences the research around our ability to increase our feeling of mattering is hopeful.   

Gordon Flett describes mattering as malleable and while he acknowledges that it is strongly influenced by our early experiences his research also strongly supports the assertion that we can change how we perceive our value. 

When we think about mattering we often think about life’s big moments  - the big promotion at work, the flattering toast on our 40th birthday, a surprise trip to celebrate a milestone.  These moments are special and increase our sense of mattering.  But mattering can also be created and maintained in much smaller moments. The delicious lasagne that someone leaves on our door step when we are sheltering at home, the feeling we get when we open the door, that feeling is mattering.  The work colleague who asks after our mother when she had been poorly, that is mattering.  The boss who recognises we are exhausted and allows us you go home a few minutes early, that is mattering.  Understanding this is helpful because it places us all in a position to influence and increase the feeling of mattering in everyone around us.  And this is a win win because one of the simplest pathways to increasing our sense of mattering is to give to others.  Our most precious resource is our time and when we use this resource to encourage, mentor, supervise others we will not only increase their sense of mattering but we will also increase our own.  And if mentoring or coaching is not your bag just make a sandwich or a cup of coffee for someone.  Remember mattering is build in the small moments not grand gestures. 

Another way we can increase our sense of mattering is by engaging in something that is bigger than ourselves – maybe it’s an environmental campaign, maybe it’s taking a more active role in the PTFA, or maybe it’s offering your coaching skills to the local football team.  Martin Seligman suggests that being able to contribute (add value) and belong (matter) to something creates a sense of purpose in our lives.  And it is this sense of belonging and purpose that nudges us closer to a greater sense of mattering.    

We all deserve to feel like we matter in our work and in our relationships.  To know that people value our presence AND to know that we have opportunities to add value on a regular basis.  It is OK to ask… Am I treated fairly? Do the people I work with value my point of view? Do I make my partner feel valued and does my partner make me feel valued? Marisa Franco, the author of Platonic, suggests that sometimes mattering “requires making sure you only engage in relationships with people who reflect that you matter back to you.”  We can all manage short periods of not being valued but a prolonged period of feeling like we don’t matter has the capacity to impact all aspects of our lives.  

Remember mattering is not just a “nice to have,” it is incredibly protective both in terms of resilience and human flourishing.  Taking the time to cultivate mattering in our lives will always be an investment worth making.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Parenting: Why normalising can protect our children from future shame

  Much of what we feel comfortable talking about stems from our home environment.   What was allowed and what wasn’t.    Parts of our bodies smell bad sometimes, it is normal and part of being human.   But what if, when we start to talk about the weird smell, we immediately get shut down “no more of that talk please” or “that’s private and not something you share.”   Many of these comments are made from a place of good intention, we want our children to follow the social norms of whatever culture we live in.   But when our children voice valid experiences and these valid experiences are hushed up or ignored this creates feelings of shame and isolation.   If our body smells bad and we can’t talk about it we have no way of knowing that everyone’s body smells bad from time to time.   If on the other hand we take a normalisation approach and say something like “tell me a bit more about it, my body sometimes smells bad too” …. This normalisation m...

Parenting: Our teenagers are supposed to have intense emotions

  I was speaking to a friend this week and she was talking about the focus on mental health and wellbeing in her daughter’s new school.   Like most parents she was pleased to see the school shift in this direction but she had also observed a change in her daughter’s choice of words.   Words like worry and sad were being replaced with words like stressed, anxious or depressed.    And while more sophisticated use of language is part of the normal developmental trajectory it got me wondering about how our young people are making sense of their feelings within this new world of embracing mental health.     Mood swings are a defining feature of adolescence.   During this period of development our kids will experience their emotions more intensely than any other time in their lives.   This happens because their brains are under construction – they are getting faster and more specialised, ultimately supporting our kids move into adulthood.   ...

Parenting: Moving our children from “BUT” to “AND”

Next week is children’s mental health week and the theme this year is “ Know yourself, grow yourself”.  In our schools our children will be exploring the different parts of themselves – the kind part, the mean part, the lazy part, the super competitive part.  They will be meeting their big feelings and learning that all our emotions have a place and a job and it is important to make room for every single one.  The tide has finally started to change and we are now beginning to support our young people to shift themselves from a “BUT” to an “AND” From “I would like to go to the party BUT I am feeling anxious about going” to  “I would like to go to the party AND I am feeling anxious about going” This may appear to be a benign change but within these small words lies so much agency both for ourselves and for our children.  Within this context imagine your child has been invited to a playdate.  They are super excited and they are super anxious.  Their mind ...