Portia Nelson is an incredible woman; singer, songwriter, actress and author who passed away in 2001. Her brilliant poem titled: Autobiography in five short chapters, is published in his book: There is a hole in my sidewalk. Copyright © 1993 Portia Nelson, Beyond Words Publishing, Hillsboro, Oregon, USA Used with permission.
Autobiography in five short chapters
Chapter One. I walk on the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall. I’m lost, helpless, it’s not my fault and it takes forever to find a way out.
Chapter Two. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don’t see it, I fall back. I can’t believe I’m in the same place, but it’s not my fault and it still takes me a long time to get out.
Chapter Three. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it there, I still fall, it’s a habit. My eyes are open, I know where I am, it’s my fault and I go out immediately.
Chapter four. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.
Chapter five. I walk down another street.
Skip to a new chapter
When you truly know what this poem says and means, it will change your life. The secret of success to move to a new chapter? Invest the time and effort to find, understand, and integrate a new perspective that transcends your old context and increases your personal power.
Chapter One is the fascinating beginning. I’ve been there, and since you’ve been reading this, I guess you’ve done it too.
In fact, it can take forever to find your way out. Its self-sabotage mechanism will deceive, pretend and deceive you, causing countless delays in finding the solution. Even once you’ve dug it up, you’ll find that you also have all kinds of reasons to put off its implementation.
Chapter Two. You repeat the mistake that caused you to fall into the same hole you found in chapter one, but you keep pretending it’s not your fault. But without taking responsibility for the problem, how can you change it? So you keep falling, until you’re willing to stop pretending.
So, look at the problem and see that you are the cause of the problem that occurs in the first place. The willingness to do something to solve it is the secret to success. Only then is he empowered to leave this chapter and move on.
Chapter Three. You are trying to change and solve the problem in the way you identified in chapter two. But you’ve fallen into this hole so many times that it’s a habit. But at least you know where you are and how to regain your personal power, which you do immediately.
Chapter four. You have overcome the problem and choose to continue avoiding the temptation to fall into the hole. But such opportunities keep recurring, it still requires effort on your part not to succumb to the problem.
Now that you know exactly how to change your life, just walk around the hole. But you still haven’t completely solved the problem. You still do not know it well enough, you have not yet integrated all its aspects into your being, to be able to move on.
Chapter Five. You have completely overcome the problem and it has stopped occurring. You let him go and he has no energy left for you. So he’s stopped being attracted to your life, it’s over, and you’ve moved on.
Food for thought
“If you start thinking that the problem is ‘out there’, stop. That thought is the problem.”
– Steven Covey, University Professor, MBA, Ten Honorary Doctorates, Author: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
© Copyright Worldwide Cris Baker, LifeStrategies.net. The republication is welcome under a non-commercial Creative Commons license without derivatives, keeping all links intact. All rights reserved.
