Let It Be Episode 19: Honesty (with ourselves)

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This is probably my favourite Let it Be episode to date. And ironically, it’s one we weren’t able to map out very well in advance because we didn’t really know where we were going with it. Which (as you all know!) is not how I like to do things! But … where we got to was so interesting.

The first thing I did was murder the reading of this poem (so please read it below first before listening!). It’s by Portia Nelson and it’s called There’s a Hole in My Sidewalk.

Chapter One
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost… I am helpless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter Two
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in the same place.
But it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter Three
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in… it’s a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault… I get out immediately.

Chapter Four
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter Five
I walk down another street.

As you can tell from the poem, getting ourselves out of bad situations requires honesty with ourselves. In this podcast Brooke and I talk about why this is so hard, why the stories we tell ourselves are important … and how to know which of those stories should be listened to, and which should be pushed back against.

Not sure how to listen in to these podcasts?

  • If you have an iPhone – the easiest thing to do is open up the Podcasts app (which is on all iPhones) and search for ‘Let it Be’. When it comes up, simply subscribe. Once you’re subscribed, all our episodes will automatically download on to your phone (and we will love you to the moon and back).
  • If you’re on your computer, the direct link to our show in iTunes is here. Once you’ve subscribed in iTunes, it will download our episodes into your iTunes and you can then add them to whichever iDevice you like from there.
  • And if all else fails, you can listen to the show directly via the player below – or download the mp3 to transfer to your audio listening device of choice 🙂