You can read this poem here.
When I thought of this poem to go with this post, I was just thinking about the learning process; about the wounds around not being perfect that (like many others) I carry. I hadn’t realised ‘Autobiography’ was such a Big Thing in the self-help and motivational world. I guess that’s because it captures something so concisely and well: how taking responsibility, and stopping blaming others or other things, is the central part of being able to do things differently
It’s so easy to say—it’s ‘five short chapters’, after all—but it’s also an ‘Autobiography’—which is to say, the story of a whole life. So all those who brandish the poem in a Tony Robbins, get your shit together NOW sort of a way, take note: because it involves seeing yourself clearly, taking responsibility is hard. Learning is hard. It takes time. So be kind to yourself when you have to do it.