One for the Pot

When I was a boy, my parents always pointed out that in order to make a good cup of tea you needed to put one teaspoon of tea for each person and then add “one for the pot”. In other words, when you are given a job; do it well; rather provide too much than too little. Maybe this would be a good slogan by which to live our lives?

Instead of providing just enough effort to finish a particular task, would it not be better to ‘go that extra yard’ and with a little extra effort perform a great job? People are rarely remembered for just doing enough. When they perform exceptionally well in any field, that is when we remember them and it is something we all can do, once we convince ourselves of its viability. “I can’t do this” or “I can’t do that,” really means “I don’t wish to make the extra effort to do it or to learn how to do it well. “ It is all a matter of attitude. Take a negative approach to any challenge or task in our lives and immediately it assumes mountainous proportions. On the contrary, take a positive attitude, and once we begin the task, it suddenly appears far less challenging than we feared.

When Andrew Jackson Davis, that great nineteenth century American seer, described a child as “the repository of infinite possibilities,” he was saying that we each have such power and love within us that nothing need ever be impossible. There dwells within us, if we are willing to search long and hard enough, all knowledge and the ability to overcome any disadvantage. We only have to look at the disadvantages of birth suffered by many people who became great leaders of their time and in their particular fields, to understand the truth of this. From Napoleon to Mandela; from Ernest Bevin, the coal miner who became Foreign Secretary of Britain, to Albert Einstein, who changed the basis of physics though without traditional scientific training; from Lincoln, the farm boy who became one of the finest Presidents of the USA, to Lech Walensa, the Polish electrician who brought the mighty USSR to its knees. Each in his own way overcame disadvantages that would have daunted lesser people and in doing so realised their dream and changed the face of the world in the process. They had the courage to say “I can do it, no matter what others may think.”

These great men would be the first to admit they did not consider themselves to be particularly special, with the possible exception of Napoleon after declaring himself emperor. Such people are usually possessed of great modesty, as well as enormous determination. Determination has nothing to do with conceit; modesty will achieve far more than bombast. They learned that to realise their dream they needed to tap the hidden powers that lay within them. They were never daunted by others who may have considered them ‘upstarts’ or ‘insignificant’. They held onto their dreams, made enormous efforts to compensate for their lack of training or social position and refused to be cowed. They ‘knew’ they could do it and when any of us adopt that stance and pursues our dream single-mindedly, the universe seems to reorganise itself to come to our aid.

We are not intended to pass through this life in a perpetual fog, being persuaded by others of our inadequacy. On the contrary, we are intended to take advantage of the opportunities presented to us and exploit them using the gifts we have and our inner strengths, but to do this without trespassing on the rights or needs of others. To do so requires us to recognise that each person is different; each person has gifts, not all have the same gifts but no-one has none at all. We need therefore to understand the gifts we have been given and work with them, not spend useless hours complaining we have not been given this or that other gift. As the old adage goes; “If God gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

To really work with the gifts we possess means just that; working! Only by honing our gifts by hard work can we exploit them. In doing this we need also to beware of flattery, for it is a thing that has diverted many a person into self-satisfaction and self-importance. When you wish to know how well you are doing in honing your gifts, go within. You are the only person who can know exactly how much you have progressed and how much effort you have truly given to the task. “One for the pot” demands self-knowledge that is not clouded by conceit or wishful thinking. We as individuals are the only ones who can develop that. “Know thyself” has to be objective and done with a clear head.

Less it be thought all this work sounds deadly dull always remember that the personal satisfaction gained from any job well done is a source of great happiness and contentment. It is only when, inside, we know we have not done our best even when others may think we have, that a sense of dissatisfaction mars our happiness. Why not make sure we stay happy by adding “one for the pot?”