Hi Test,
If you and I were having a conversation about creativity, productivity, leadership and the true meaning of success—and you asked me what human quality was most important to these, I’d probably say “sovereignty.”
Great word right? Sovereignty. Just the look of it fills me with hope. And lifts my energy.
Why?
Because to step into your sovereign nature is:
…to become so confident in your skin that you are careless of the opinions of others.
…to know who you are, what you stand for and how you wish to roll through the remainder of your life.
…to see the herd and walk with the herd and leave the herd, in the sense that you have the courage—and wisdom—to think for yourself, create for yourself and follow the quiet call on your highest life.
Let’s go deeper Test…
…I’ve just put down a book that has found its way into me deeply: The Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham. It’s a story about a man who was a stockbroker in London. Married for 17 years, a pillar of society and the father of two children. One day, he left.
Yes, he just left.
He was discovered in Paris. Alone. In a fleabag motel. Nearly penniless.
When asked the motive for his vanishing, his reply (like the best replies) was a simple one: “I want to paint.”
Heeding the call of his soul led him to Marseille then to Tahiti then to a cottage in the bush of Tahiti. All he wanted to do was paint. Not for money and not for approval and not for the clapping of hands. No, just for the doing of the art itself.
It gets even better: at the end of his life he painted his masterwork on the walls of his tiny shack. The art was ethereal and masterful and bordered on the divine. Yet, he gave his wife one instruction to be performed after his death: burn the place down.
Here’s an excerpt from the book:
“He lived more poorly than an artisan. He worked harder. He cared nothing for those things which with most people make life gracious and beautiful. He cared nothing about fame. It never entered his head that compromise was possible. He had a vision.”
The lesson from this (as far as I can tell): do your work for the value of the work itself. Not for the cash or for the congratulations or for the temporary security it fills you with but for what the doing of your art makes you into, and causes you to feel—and fulfills within your soul.
To do so and to operate like this will make you a sovereign. A true artist. And, I do believe, a fully functioning human being.
Note: there’s a lot of excitement about my upcoming book The Robot and The Gardener: Being Fully Human in an Artificial Age. It’s a parable, and I write on themes like the one in this message. It’ll be available worldwide in February.
To be among the first to hear more and get a sneak peek at the cover art before anyone else on September 15, sign up for the waitlist here.
Love + respect,
Robin
