QuoteProject
Perhaps a sense of possessing needs to come to come before a sense of genuine sharing.
Stephen Covey
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Before we can genuinely share with others, we must first feel secure and content with what we have.

In this quote, Stephen Covey suggests that the ability to truly share with others in a meaningful way is rooted in a foundational sense of security and self-sufficiency. Before we can engage in authentic sharing of ourselves or our resources, we need to possess a feeling of completeness or fulfillment, which allows us to extend generosity and connection to others without anxiety or insecurity.

Themes

SharingPossessingRelationshipsGenerositySelf-Sufficiency

In practice

Example use cases

In a seminar about building healthy relationships, this quote can illustrate the importance of self-awareness.

More from Stephen Covey

How many on their deathbeds wished they'd spent more time at the office - or watching TV? The answer is, No one.
Stephen CoveyRead
If you want to have a more pleasant, cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, empathic, consistent, loving parent. If you want to have more freedom, more latitude in your job, be a more responsible, a more helpful, a more contributing employee.
Stephen CoveyRead
Listen with your eyes for feelings.
Stephen CoveyRead
If we live out of our memory, we're tied to the past and to that which is finite. When we live out of our imagination, _x000D_ we're tied to that which is infinite.
Stephen CoveyRead
Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people.
Stephen CoveyRead
Keep in mind that you are always saying "no" to something. If it isn't to the apparent and urgent things in your life, it is probably to the most fundamental, highly important things.
Stephen CoveyRead

Similar quotes

To speak frankly, I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which I think is never advisable.
Oscar WildeRead
If we don't know how to be alone, we'll only know how to be lonely.
Sherry TurkleRead
I failed to communicate, that's why I chose to leave
Bob DylanRead
Many employer-employee relationships are built on a lie that starts from the first interaction: neither party automatically conceives of the relationship as something that will last a lifetime, but both interact as if it is. This lie of omission bases the relationship on distrust.
Reid HoffmanRead
When you meet somebody for the first time, you're not meeting them. You're meeting their representative.
Chris RockRead
But she has gathered that Americans, in spite of their public declarations of affection, in spite of their miniskirts and bikinis, in spite of their hand-holding on the street and lying on top of each other on the Cambridge Common, prefer their privacy.
Jhumpa LahiriRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.