I have a mentor who told me years ago that as a younger and more irreverent man that he was asked by a pastor, "Son, do you know your purpose in life?" To which he responded, "Yessir. I was put here to kill every last deer in the state of Mississippi."
Hard to probe this line of thought without violating papasquirrel's "no religion" rule. But I'll say that while hunting prowess isn't the full sum of my perceived self worth, it is a factor. My life got better when I admitted to myself that I'd generally rather kill deer than make money, eat, sleep, socialize, procreate, or really even "just be a good person."
Weirdly, I'm usually my best self when I'm hunting. I'm driven, focused, patient, and making full use of my physical and mental abilities. I'm usually at my most generous when helping somebody blood trail or drag a deer out, or trying to put a new hunter on their first kill. I'm the best son I can be when I'm putting my dad in the best spot I found after a weekend of crawling every inch of 500 acres and being ecstatic when he shoots the biggest buck either of us have ever seen. I have had the best work ethic and been of the most value to society when working jobs tangential to hunting. Most of my closest friendships have been the result of hunting. Most of my charitable and philanthropic efforts would not have happened if it wasn't for my desire to want myself and similar people to always have the option to hunt.
I'm willing to bet some portion of your self-worth is tied to your ability to achieve your goals as a hunter. You've probably got some other stuff sprinkled in there with it. I do. I wanna be a good husband, a good son, a good brother, a good employee, a good citizen, etc. But one can make the argument that all these metrics we use to gauge our worth are quite arbitrary, and that ultimately maybe our self-worth isn't as important as we selfishly think it is. And I think that's ok. I tend to believe that there probably isn't a grand, predestined "purpose" that we're assigned at conception. I think we're kinda making it up as we go along, and that it changes as we change. It's not a "pass or fail" test. It's not even an essay exam. It's a creative writing exercise, so go balls-to-the-wall with it. I know that thought runs counter to a lot of other people's, but I think if you entertain the idea a lot of the world starts to make more sense.
I don't feel sad for myself that a good portion of satisfaction with who I am is dependent on how good I am at killing deer. I think it's odd, but it's also odd that I prefer Wild Turkey to Jack Daniels, or brunettes to blondes, or Labradors to German Shepherds.
