This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Change, Personal Growth, Success. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
This is a poem I have always found to be a great illustration of personal growth, because it shows in a few very short lines the power each of us has to transform our lives just by taking responsibility for our choices.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN FIVE SHORT CHAPTERS
by Portia Nelson
I
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost … I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes me forever to find a way out.
II
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in the same place
but, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
III
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in … it’s a habit.
my eyes are open
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
IV
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
V
I walk down another street.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
That is so true. If we don’t learn from our past mistakes, or if we allow them to become habit, we will never get past them to where we want to be.