WILL, KNOWLEDGE, ACTION, LEGACY

A man sows a thought
and reaps an action.
Sows an action, reaps a habit.
Sows a habit, reaps a character.
Sows a character, reaps a destiny.
PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA

Be who you are truly.
Discover your talents and your purpose in life.
This may take you to do what you love and because you do
things with love, you may get what you need.
ERICH FROMM

Carlos Nessi was a good friend and an excellent therapist who died last year. Carlos, as a gift intended to awaken everyone’s inner greatness, repeated to his clients: “What you give of yourself will become your wealth”. Our wealth is what we can bring on to this world in which we live. Our prosperity depends on our devotion to others —thanks to our devotion and invitation for the others to grow, we grow ourselves. Or, to quote my fellow friend Alejandro Jodorowsky, “What you give, you give it to yourself; what you do not, you take it away from yourself”.

We spend our whole lives searching out for what we already have within. We get lost in long journeys whose final destination is always, whatever it may happen, coming back home after becoming more open minded and mature, more aware that we will never find out there what we desire best as it is just our own inner cry, the voice of life that, through us, is calling us to give it Meaning, to fill it not by adding things —objects— , but rather the opposite, by giving ourselves what we have got as gifts, talents, desires, ideas, utopias, all wished. But that fulfilness is only achieved by those who know within themselves they are on this Earth to serve and to love, to care and to pass on, and that’s the beginning and the end of every journey.

If we were to establish a metaphor, an analogy between a treasure hunt and the skills needed to get it, we would surely have in mind the following elements: a good compass or sextant to locate the island, a detailed map to find where the treasure is buried, a pick and shovel to dig and break through the soil and the sand to the treasure chest, and a flashlight, shall we need additional light in moments of darkness.

Well, we have got all these elements within us, if we can summon them, turn them on and put them into practice:

• The compass would be our attitude, our will, the force that drives us into the path of life and gives it a Meaning and direction. Our emotional and social intelligence is that compass, and our attitudes and values are what help us move forward with joy and determination in building our utopias and desires, they are the soul fuel that feeds the enthusiasm we give to others. He who wants can do more than he who can, goes the saying with truth, and that is possible thanks to the enormous force that generates a human being, as he knows that without a positive, strong, determined, generous and kind attitude there is nothing we can be in life, let alone embody major projects or utopias.

• Knowledge, wisdom, would be the map, the diagram that indicates how to get where the treasure is buried. If the compass guides and orientates us, the map shows the way in a more detailed form. The first does not work without the other: map and compass are needed and are enriching, as well as do well tuned and harmonized attitudes and knowledge. It is essential to have a high dose of love combined with a high dose of knowledge, a certain knowledge —logical and rational intelligence that leads us to master the subject we want to offer to the world, to get to conquer our treasure and to offer it to the world so generously and sustainably over time.

• But what are a compass and a sketch on paper good for, however good they can be, if we are not willing to roll our sleeves up and remove the soil with pick and shovel to dig up to the treasure chest? Not only is it to will necessary —attitude— and knowledge, it is also essential to do, to do it well, to work hard. This is actually known as practical intelligence, which consists in knowing how to use our attitude and our knowledge on operational issues, everyday’s, even mundane ones, we do not make any real progress without. Blood, sweat and tears, if necessary, to find the treasure with our work, willing, knowing and doing.

• Once we have the treasure, our odyssey, however, is not over. The challenge then is even bigger: how can we keep it, or better, how can we make it grow to reach as many people as possible? How well can we bequeath it to future generations so they can preserve it and share it with those who are yet to come? The ethical and spiritual intelligence is the means to preserve it and pass it on to future generations even if we are no longer on Earth. Because the treasure is the sum of these intelligences of a human being, be him an economic or social entrepreneur, or both things at once. And whoever is able to make great achievements neither belongs to a different race nor is superior to you, who hold these pages, dear reader. What distinguishes these people from the rest are their attitude and their way of seeing the world. But I will try to write about this on the next posts of this blog, Solutions.

[This article and the following ones are a summary of the book “The Treasure Map”, written by Álex Rovira and Francesc Miralles, and published by Editorial Connecta in Spanish.]

Álex Rovira