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CTL-VII-0062

“I did real good for people quietly and felt no pull to be seen doing it.”

CTL · Pillar III — Control CTL-VII · Own Only What Is Yours.

The work helped people and almost no one knows you did it — and you find you don't need them to. The water in the valley doesn't announce itself; it just nourishes what's around it. Owning only what is yours means keeping the meaning of the service and releasing the credit you never needed.

Your Practice

  1. Do one useful thing today with no plan to be recognized for it.
  2. Resist arranging for the right person to find out.
  3. Let the help itself be the entire point.
  4. Notice the cleanness of good done for its own sake.

The Architects

“The highest excellence is like (that of) water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving (to the contrary), the low place which all men dislike.”

— Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, ch. 8 (James Legge translation)

More under CTL-VII

CTL-VII-0001“I'm obsessing over something I can't control.”CTL-VII-0002“My anxiety is through the roof and I can't shut my brain off.”CTL-VII-0003“I stopped worrying about what people think and I feel lighter.”CTL-VII-0004“I let go of something I couldn't control and found peace.”CTL-VII-0005“I finally accepted that not everything is my responsibility.”CTL-VII-0006“Someone I trusted let me down badly.”
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