It seems to be the question of the moment according to most news outlets.

Am I better off now than I was four years ago? Absolutely. Will I be better off in 2016 than I am now? Absolutely. Better off in 2020 than 2016? Absolutely.

I’m not a prophet or a medium. I am just a person confident that I am better off tomorrow than I am today. And I can assure you that who is voted in as the president of the United States has no bearing on my answer. Some of you may already think me a braggart so let me disabuse you of the notion. If we use the current cultural gauge-economy-as the determination of whether I’m better off now than four years ago, then the answer becomes a resounding, “No!” Let me explain.

Four years ago, I was employed full-time in a position that brought me great joy and fulfillment. I had full medical, dental and vision benefits. I had enough to make necessary home improvements and even to eat out a few times a week with the occasional Café Mocha from Starbucks to perk up my day.

Today, I am unemployed with no health benefits. My roof is in serious need of repair and Starbucks seems like excess at this moment.

And, yes, I whole-heartedly know that I am better off now than I was four years ago. That’s four years of learning and gaining wisdom from failures, successes and listening to wise people who know more than I do. I am better off in all the ways that matter. Four years ago, I was complacent in my faith. Today, I know what I believe and why I believe it. Today, I am a much better wife and mother. I’m more patient and more willing to listen to another person. I’m not as patient as I’d like to be, but in comparison to four years ago, I’m better.

But my current situation is not a result of how the president or government has failed me. The decisions they make certainly have an impact on me in a negligible sense, but my self-worth and dignity aren’t dictated by the economy or what person leads our nation. Let me use the workplace as an analogy to how I view this question of whether we are better off than we were four years ago.

In most organizations, you have a leader-regardless of whether the person is called a president or CEO. That leader normally has a core of other leaders that assists him in making ultimate decisions for the organization as a whole-whether it’s a board of directors, other executive officers or personal mentors. Let’s suppose that like any other human being on the planet, this leader makes both good and bad decisions. And while leadership is vital, we also know that organizations are made up of individual employees who contribute to the overall success of the organization by the individual decisions they make daily.

Am I the type of employee who sees every bad decision made by a leader and link my poor performance to a lack of quality leadership? Or am I the employee who spends less time focusing on the mistakes of others and focuses instead on my individual contribution to the overall organization and strive towards excellence?

I’m guessing that a workforce of the latter kind could significantly change the culture of an organization regardless of who is in charge.

Personally, I am better off now than I was before. Collectively, as a nation? My gauge would be based on our “culture” and how we have live out our nation’s values on a daily basis. I would gauge it by our relationship to one another, our ability to respectfully disagree with one another and preserve human dignity, our desire to help and serve one another in love.

I deeply care about our nation. I care about the people who make up this nation. I care about how it is led. I would just encourage us as individuals who make up this nation to think more reflectively on how we gauge what it means to be “better off.” Basing it on the economy or what happens to the stock market is a dangerous proposition.

How do you gauge whether we are better off now than we were four years ago?