Hello,
It's Sunita here.
Whenever I encounter someone new who excites me, I feel a bittersweet pang.
On one hand there is the thrill of experiencing resonance, validation, or a brand new discovery in their work. (I hope that feeling never goes away for me.) But on the other hand, there is a profound sadness that comes with realizing I spent so many years not learning from their work.
John W. Gardner is one such person.
How I came about his book, 'Self Renewal- The Individual and The Innovative Society' is a story for another time, but for now, I would like to introduce you to him by sharing the following passage from his book with you.
"We can keep ourselves so busy, fill our lives with so many diversions, stuff our heads with so much knowledge, involve ourselves with so many people and cover so much ground that we never have time to probe the fearful and wonderful world within. More often than not we don't want to live with ourselves. By middle life most of us are accomplished fugitives from ourselves."
This book is a wise companion for anyone who is on a journey of self discovery, self renewal, and self actualization.
Keep thinking.
Keep figuring out your inner world.
Relate what you learn about, and from your inner world to your outer world and your relationships.
Know that your relationships are your outer and inner world.
Making sense of the chaos we live in, internally and externally, and being in a position to be able to create some meaning, and something meaningful in our lives in my experience does not happen any other way.
Solitude.
The place we must go to to do all this figuring out.
Are you an accomplished fugitive from yourself?
If so, then you have some housekeeping to do before you get to solitude.
Until next time,
Moving forwards,
Sunita
#TWBH #SLSCF #selfloveselfcarefirst #self renewal #John W Gardner #George Herbert #Poet #writer #Thinker #Stanford University #Mentorship #Mentors #Psychology #Self Actualization #Progress #Solitude #Inner World
