“Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for me. Therefore the poet brings his poem; the shepherd, his lamb; the farmer, corn; the miner, a stone; the painter, his picture; the girl, a handkerchief of her own sewing.”
The opening quote is a famous quotation being shared all over the internet and the credit for which is sometimes given to Pablo Picasso and sometimes to Shakespeare however this a quotation from a 1993 volume “Finding Your Strength in Difficult Times: A Book of Meditations” by David Viscott.
The paragraph below, is taken from an essay dated 1843, titled “Gifts” by famous lecturer Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Interesting to see how two people could reach the same conclusion about 150 years apart. Yes, David could have been inspired by some of Emerson’s work but if you really look at it then Emerson seems to have been inspired by a much deeper thought.
Across different religions, we all seem somehow to reach the same conclusion. Sacrifice. In his theory about Personal Transformation, Carl Jung explains how true transformation for self development always comes at a cost of a personal sacrifice.
It is this sacrifice that drives forward the process of personality development and change in an individual in his quest to attain personal greatness.
Most entrepreneurs will tell you the same quite possibly, that all of their greatest achievements lauded by the world have come at a great personal cost. Quite frankly, if you take the examples of some of the greatest artists such as Van Gough, you could say that the sacrifice isn’t what is required for the creation. In fact, the creation emanates from the sacrifice which could’ve been just a matter of chance such as a personal loss.
Therefore, People who are afraid of doing their best work are essentially afraid of the sacrifice that has to accompany the flow of your best work.
This sacrifice could be anything. It could well be a sacrifice of your own perceived personal limitations and self limiting beliefs. Not all sacrifices have to be bad; a hot air balloon needs to expend weights if it must ascend!
However, what stops people from expressing themselves freely? What is the cause of the negative self talk that most people indulge in? Why do most people have a habit of convincing themselves that they aren’t good enough?
Traumatic childhood experiences and criticism, sibling rivalry, failures etc. aside…
I think upon a deeper analysis, we could say that it is a resistance to give freely and that probably arises from a background of lack.
Where does a lack of self worth emanate? From a feeling of lack. That’s it! Then the feeling of lack amplifies the lack of self worth and the process keeps on repeating itself.
As an Entrepreneur, your work is quite like an artist. You must spend years perfecting your craft quite often in poverty until you have finally succeeded at building something so great that it’s value far surpasses most other things.
Even so, if you cease to create after you’ve reached such a point, you cease to be an entrepreneur. You cannot introduce yourself as an entrepreneur if you aren’t creating anything anymore, you may at best say you ‘once were’.
Great entrepreneurs hate that. You know why?
Because they always feel they have a lot more in them still to give to the world.
The shadow self has a huge role to play in how you perceive life and yourself. The biggest reason that most of never really get down to doing what we want is because we haven’t learnt to integrate the ‘shadow self’.
What’s the ‘shadow self’?
The shadow self is the side of you that you don’t like to admit to. Quite simply, it’s the side of yourself that you hide from the world or maybe deny it in yourself while the world can see it quite clearly!
Creation is about reconciling the irreconcilable ends of a spectrum. Think of it.
If there is night there is day, if there is heads there is tails, if there is God there is Satan and so on. All of creation including god (therefore Satan as well) has been done by man.
Yes, there is indeed a higher power at work and I believe so however, these systems have all being created by men to simplify the processes of understanding and explanation.
The truth is that they are both one.
Men have been creating these negative and positive ended ideas for so long to simplify their own lives which has then complicated their lives.
The truth is, there is no night and day. There is always day somewhere on Earth!
The truth is there is no month of year, it’s just a continuum of nothingness.
Now, apply that knowledge to what you do as an Entrepreneur and see what happens:
The truth is there is no good work, bad work or mediocre work. There is just work and what it is all about, it’s about giving away your gift to the world. That’s it.
So although I say that you must aspire to do your best work and not settle for less, the truth is, I’m just trying to sell you the idea that you need to CREATE more.
Somewhere in all of what you create is your greatest gift to mankind but to find your greatest gift you need to start sharing all of your gifts with an open heart!
Don’t take it to the grave with you.
Leave it behind.
Let them put it over your tombstone..
Let them tell the world
that here lies a man
who found his gift
and he lies peacefully
because he gave it away!
Love,
Jay
Thank you so much for your love and support. As always, here’s an audio clip to go with the content:
