If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.

— Isaac Newton

GRATITUDE

WHAT THIS MEANS

Whatever clear view you have was assembled out of other people’s work. The books you happened to read, the person who explained a thing patiently, the method someone spent years refining: none of it was yours to begin with. Seeing that does not shrink your contribution. It places it correctly, as one more step in a long line of them.

Try naming the specific people whose work you are standing on in whatever you are doing now. Tell one of them, if they are reachable. Then ask what you are adding, which is a fairer question than whether you are original.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Whose work are you quietly building on without crediting it?

MORE IN GRATITUDE & PRESENCE

Free, with nothing to buy inside it.