“Hard at work or hardly working?”
How many times have you heard that old line? And yet, if you do find yourself working “hard” every day, the joke might not be the only thing feeling worn out. In many societies, feeling constantly stressed out has come to be accepted as the norm, and even regarded as an indicator that one is highly dedicated to his job or other activity. However, this constant push can also lead to burnout – feeling overloaded, bored, or just plain worn down.
But is this burnout cycle really the way to a successful life? Sadhguru explains:
Sadhguru: Right from childhood, people have always told us, “When you study, study hard. When you work, work hard.” Nobody told us to study joyfully or work lovingly. No. You must study hard, you must work hard. People do everything hard, but then end up complaining when life is not easy.
The very nature of the ego is such that it wants to do everything hard. The ego is not concerned about what you are doing. Its only concern is to be one step above somebody else, that’s all. It is a very sad way to live but that is the basic nature of the ego. So, when that is the whole effort, doing everything hard naturally becomes a source of satisfaction for people. If they do things joyfully, it feels like they haven’t done anything at all.
Isn’t it wonderful when you do many things but you still feel like you haven’t done anything? That is how it should be. You may be working twenty-four hours of the day, but if you still feel like you have not done anything, then you don’t carry the burden of everything upon you. You simply go through this life like a child – expressing your capabilities to the fullest and going, that’s all. If you carry it all on your head, your capabilities never get full expression and you end up getting blood pressure, diabetes or ulcers.
If there is a certain distance between you and your mind, between you and your body, between you and everything around you, it just gives you this freedom that you can do whatever you want with life, but life leaves you untouched. It does not wound you in any way. Logically you would tend to conclude that if you become like this, you will move away from the world, but that is not the reality. On one level you are untouched, but on another level you are so involved that everything is a part of you. You can involve yourself in everybody’s life – it is like your own. When the fear of entanglement and hurt is not there, you can throw yourself into life absolutely and involve yourself in everything without hesitation.
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