Those who are Beggars.
Let me start this week by asking how you want your week to be. I know it will be a fantastic week for me, but for once, I want you to take the responsibility of saying how your week will turn out.
The biggest motivation is the one that touches deep inside you and draws out something, and there is no better way to get there than by doing it for yourself. Take the responsibility to speak for yourself and over yourself, about what you want for your week.
The core of everything that will build you into what you want in life comes from the responsibility you take to align your daily activities to your goal. You’ll always be the one to lift the biggest finger and get things going for yourself.
As you go into a new week and pick some lessons from here for the week, the first one I want you to pick is that you’re either in charge of yourself or not and if you’re in charge, you will put conscious effort into prioritising your growth through your daily activities.
But I am not a Beggar.
This weekend, I finished the book I was reading and decided to pick up a new one. After searching my e-library, I decided to read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. In the first chapter, I made a remarkable discovery of the same lessons I’ve been trying to transmit in this newsletter.
Yes, you’re not a beggar, but not when you believe that the power that can drive you to the places you want to be in life is on the outside, not inside. Anything that makes you dependent on external validation as a source of your drive in life makes you a beggar.
I want you to read the following with your whole mind open. The following passage is from Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now.
A beggar had been sitting by the side of a road for over thirty years. One day, a stranger walked by. "Spare some change?" mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his old baseball cap. "I have nothing to give you," said the stranger. Then he asked: "What's that you are sitting on?" "Nothing," replied the beggar. "Just an old box. I have been sitting on it for as long as I can remember." "Ever looked inside?" asked the stranger. "No," said the beggar. "What's the point? There's nothing in there." "Have a look inside," insisted the stranger. The beggar managed to pry open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold.
I am that stranger who has nothing to give you and who is telling you to look inside. Not inside any box, as in the parable, but somewhere even closer: inside yourself.
"But I am not a beggar," I can hear you say.
Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth. They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfilment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.
Coincidentally, in church today (I wrote this newsletter Sunday evening), I walked into a friend who decided to bring me into a conversation with one of his friends who was finding it hard to start an important conversation while he was dying inside for it.
I said, Brother, what do you think would happen if you just walk down there and say what you have to say and he said, I don’t know what the response would be. This is a typical example of letting the outside control the whole of you.
Before I left, I told him, "If this is what you want inside of you, then you should let that inner energy drive you to give what you have to give for it, knowing that you did what you had to do. Whatever is on the outside is not what you can control."
You simply leave what you cannot control and focus on what you can control, not letting the outside dictate what happens inside of you. There is nothing outside; if you’re not driven from the inside, you’re a beggar and probably a scared one too.
The Antidote of the Beggar.
I don’t know what people will say. I think people will laugh at me. I think she will say no, my parents will this, and my friends will that. When your whole life is a reactionary space to people’s validation, you’re just a scared beggar begging through life.
You second-guess everything, not because you can’t do it, but because you lack the self-esteem to stand for yourself without the validation of other people, and even the validation of people you have nothing to do with, like the internet people.
The continuous fear of criticism and the constant pandering to opinions to remain in good gist-log with people who shouldn’t have a single sway over any outcome of your life are difficult places to be in life.
The antidote to this beggarly lifestyle is to constantly look inward, knowing that everything needed to live the best life you want flows from the inside to the outside and not the other way round.
You should remember that the foundational tools of carrying and presenting yourself in the best way in life are the innate belief that you’re a competent and worthy person; these are inner virtues that impact outer realities. That is the key.
Remember what Eckhart Tolle said: “Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth. They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfilment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.”
The Conclusion.
Finally, this week as you go, I want you to accept accountability for the fact that this life is yours and focus only on the details which shows that you respect the reality that the life is yours.
Looking inward and focusing on building yourself instead of seeking and pandering to your outward environment for validation is the only way to focus on yourself in a way that will bring you the growth that can change your life for the better.
I know you’re going to have a great week. I’ll talk to you again soon.
Thank you so much for this post, T.I.G. It was such a beautiful and relatable read and honestly it spoke to me deeply.
Here’s my little input to the post:
It is very easy to seek validation from others, sometimes without even realizing it. You wear something beautiful and feel good in it, but the moment you don’t get a compliment or acknowledgment from someone else, you begin to question yourself.
But here’s the truth: people are often impacted by what you do or who you are without ever telling you. And sometimes, that quiet impact is the most powerful kind.
Over time, I’ve learned to make a conscious effort to find my validation within. I speak life over myself. I say things like:
“I am beautiful. I am wonderfully made. I am well-versed in all branches of life. My light shines everywhere I go. People see me and want to engage with me. I am gifted with wisdom and good judgment. I am strong, healthy, and full of grace. Wherever I find myself, I am ten times better and more capable than I even imagine.”
I truly believe that when we speak these words over ourselves, we are planting seeds. Seeds that eventually blossom into confidence, clarity, and growth.
We don’t need the world’s applause to bloom, we just need to believe in our own light and water it daily.