Of failing and succeeding, of trying and doing
Note to myself...get my own copy of the Daodejing... anyway... Men are beings of endeavors, that is a fact. No man does not cease to live or be and not do anything at all at the same time. Always, always, always, men are beings of endeavors. Always have, always will be...why doesn't matter, it just is. However, one notices that any endeavor is a source of stress for man, and stress can be a cause of death, and is always a cause of suffering. How can this be true? Man works, then man rests, otherwise man cannot work. In fact, one can work one's self to death. Work naturally tenses us because we have results to attain, norms to conform to, and people to get along with! And getting along can be a stressful task indeed!!! And so man's life is endeavor, and man's suffering is from endeavor. Therefore, man's life brings suffering unto him... ...though true on some occasions, it is utterly fallacious...because when one attains result, man's work brings new life unto him and other men...this is the nature of work... However, most of us are not fortunate enough to have gifts of excellence that other people have been given...so most of the time most of us are working still to attain the results we want. But is it the work that deals us this stress? Or is it more the result? The more results we want, the more work we need to do. The better the results, the harder the work. The more specific the results, the more tedious the work. And the more, the harder, the more tedious the work, the more we get frustrated and suffer. Thus the results bring stress. But does it mean then that it is wise to be mediocre? Is the key to life really lowered expectations? Actually, yes and no. The more we impose on the results, the more we impose on ourselves. And so what do we do? We relax our standards, but in doing so we end up performing work that can be substandard, and thus by giving in to the desired result of convenience we impose the need to lie or to bend the truth in justifying or presenting our work, and thus we impose on ourselves the result of believability, which means a result of control over certain physical and mental responses that are usually involuntary or reflexive. Or in being given a result to attain, we like to impress, and so we desire a result of overachievement, not thinking if it can be done... So what do you have then? A bunch of results that you can only try to do but never succeed. And sometimes when it doesn't work, our frustration sets in, and soon you are driving yourself up the wall because we can't do it no matter how much we try...because we assume if we try it will come! This is wrong! The more you try, the more you will fail. You try, but you cannot do, so you try some more, so you fail some more! But you hear of people who do not even try and yet succeed! So you figure, "I don't need to put in much effort, then, it'll work itself out." Haha, surprise, surprise, they don't work out...by relaxing your effort in an effort to duplicate another man's results, by trying to achieve success through a considerable lack of effort, you fail! Well, any old fool can tell you that not working at an endeavor is the sure way to fail! By trying to empty your cup you ended up filling it with the task of emptying it. The way is not to even try to not try to achieve. It is in not having results in the first place! But do not rid yourself of results by vowing not to have one...To not have results is to simply do without trying, without hesitation or reserve, without ulterior motives. In other words, to succeed, do not chase results. Just do, do as good as you can, as fast as you can, and you shall see that in simply doing instead of "doing for", you end up being a very productive doer, and you enjoy doing, and you naturally succeed and achieve results. Reptition over time hones your skill of doing things, and soon if you had results to achieve they are well in your grasp, and so need not do as much as someone who is impatients and want things done instantly. To you, the skillful man, the job is nothing and you perform it with ease and expedience worthy of a true master, and you do not do so while chasing time. So, do not chase results, and you shall have them.