So January is almost over, and before you know it we'll be in late September, and getting ready to round up yet another year. It's sad how time just blinks at us and is gone. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am typically not great at achieving things, and then when I do, I feel uncomfortable around my own modest success.
Why is that?
I don't know, but I think it is a British thing. At least my generation British. When I was at school, I had a friend called Alison, who called herself Shakti back then. Other kids asked her what that meant, and she said: "creative intelligence, power and beauty". They nodded, possibly to avoid rolling their eyes. Perhaps they didn't see these qualities in Alison? I think it was more a case of them feeling a little insulted that she could perceive herself as these things and openly express it. Ours was a generation of "oh I'm not very good at this" and "I'm hopeless at that". But Alison had an answer to that:
"Better sincere bragging than false modesty".
It was an honest way of seeing things, and today, many decades later, I want to add a thought to that: putting yourself down, whether or not you believe in your own incompetence, is bound to hinder you from achievement. That's the way you perceive yourself, so that's the way it is. On the odd occasion when you do achieve, you feel guilty at your success.
By the same token, the courage to believe you can achieve something often helps you get there quicker. In the process of assuring yourself that you can do it, you often feel happier with your success, more comfortable about it, less guilty for shining a little more brightly than others.
There is creative intelligence, power and beauty in each of us; we just need to tap it, let it flow, and celebrate it. So I am not going to let September come too soon without doing something remarkable. In the meantime, I must learn to call the little achievements I make just that: remarkable.
Why is that?
I don't know, but I think it is a British thing. At least my generation British. When I was at school, I had a friend called Alison, who called herself Shakti back then. Other kids asked her what that meant, and she said: "creative intelligence, power and beauty". They nodded, possibly to avoid rolling their eyes. Perhaps they didn't see these qualities in Alison? I think it was more a case of them feeling a little insulted that she could perceive herself as these things and openly express it. Ours was a generation of "oh I'm not very good at this" and "I'm hopeless at that". But Alison had an answer to that:
"Better sincere bragging than false modesty".
It was an honest way of seeing things, and today, many decades later, I want to add a thought to that: putting yourself down, whether or not you believe in your own incompetence, is bound to hinder you from achievement. That's the way you perceive yourself, so that's the way it is. On the odd occasion when you do achieve, you feel guilty at your success.
By the same token, the courage to believe you can achieve something often helps you get there quicker. In the process of assuring yourself that you can do it, you often feel happier with your success, more comfortable about it, less guilty for shining a little more brightly than others.
There is creative intelligence, power and beauty in each of us; we just need to tap it, let it flow, and celebrate it. So I am not going to let September come too soon without doing something remarkable. In the meantime, I must learn to call the little achievements I make just that: remarkable.
