The catch-22

Came across this quote from Marianne Williamson's book A Return to Love:

We think we're powerful because of what we've achieved rather than because of what we are. So we're caught in a Catch-22: we feel powerless to achieve until we already have.


I can definitely relate to that. The power is derived from having achieved, so now I gotta start achieving something first, just so I can have the power.

Doesn't work very well.

2 comments

Mark Aufflick
 

The power doesn't come from having achieved, but from being confident that you can achieve. Achieving once is a useful proxy for confidence that you can do it again but it is neither fully reliable nor necessary. You have to figure out how to get the confidence some other way the first time. Even for future times it is beneficial to get your confidence from somewhere other than your past successes since your future may contain a run of failures - then where would your experiential confidence be? :)
Read more
Read less
  Cancel
Lars Pind
 

Hi Mark Much more valuable and important than knowing you can achieve is knowing your worth regardless of any achievement. That's the real point here. //Lars
Read more
Read less
  Cancel

Leave a comment