What Blake Teaches Us About Living On Purpose

It’s a beautiful day here in New York and as I sip an overly sweetened espresso with chaga mushroom (yes, I know, I’m knew to chaga too for its health properties so we’ll see if I get really goofy at the end of this podcast).

I’ve been reading through my old poetry books and  I’d like to share with you some thoughts and reflections on William Blake’s work.

When I was in college, Blake’s work taught me a lot about what it means to truly live life on purpose.

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Now famed writer, poet, painter, and philosopher, when William Blake picked up a pen or a paintbrush, he got about as much recognition for his work as a squirrel does for digging up an acorn.

The man died without a clue as to how much influence his work would eventually carry. Now, just walk down the halls of any college literature or philosophy wing and you’ll likely hear a reference to Blake. He’s often stated to be one of the most influential romantic poets of all time.

Largely criticized and often viewed as mad, Blake produced what now has been pivotal work that shifted how society thinks. Through his work, he showed us the sublime: those divine aspects of life that shake one with terror while equally beholding the majesty of existence.

 

Like the great white shark who gently glides through the water with such grace, yet is capable of terrible destruction. Or the sun which warmly sprouts a plant to life and causes another to wilt with heat. The sublime is that divine relationship of shock and awe, like standing on a field just shy of a tornado’s path.

Blake inevitably died leaving little money to his name, yet his flesh went to the grave while his best work continued to thrive.

What can we learn from Blake about living our lives on purpose?

1. Seek Approval from Inside

Fact: our need to find acceptance from others is what makes us invisible.

Fact: everything we need in life came with our first breath.

Blake continued to churn out his work under the belief that his body was just a mere vessel for the divine to work through. He’s not alone in this regard. Many famous artists and scientists since then, from Michelangelo to Dyer, have shared similar words.

Perhaps Da Vinci put it best when we said, “Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.”   

1. Embrace the Sublime

Blake taught us that the greatest beauty in life is the relationship between the opposites: when the good meets the bad, when the light meets the dark, when the other meets in the middle.

It’s in this relationship that we may come closest to living our lives on purpose.

Choosing to pursue an entrepreneurial venture instead of a 9-5 is equally terrifying as it is exhilarating, much like many of the entrepreneurs I interviewed on my previous podcast, The Traveling Cup.

Choosing to stand up for your beliefs when in a crowd of opposing beliefs is equally liberating and dangerous.

Speaking one word of truth may cut deep into another’s skin.

1. Embrace the Critic

Like Aristotle taught us, any work worth something will undoubtedly face its fair share of criticism.

Understand that if you are receiving criticism, it’s a sign that you are doing work that matters.

You are getting others to think.

You are standing out.

You define beautiful.

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What about you? I know when I first read Blake’s work (one of my favorites being the poem, The Smile which I’ll share after our dance break), I didn’t quite get the sublime. It wasn’t until years after college did I appreciate Blake’s thoughts on existence. Such is the nature of living I guess, where with age comes experience and with experience comes a deeper understanding of love, living, and laughter.