The Mantra to Happiness at Work (or Anywhere): "Enjoy the Process, Forget the Outcome"

Before a nerve-wracking exam, one of my professors remarked, "Do your best, forget the rest." It did not calm me then, but I aced the test, and his words stuck in my mind. It never does anyone any good to worry about the result. When you worry about the outcome, you replace pleasure with pressure. To worry is to let anxiety loose like a mad bull in your head. It is to allow the question, "When will I be there?" to take control. Or if things go wrong, strings of "Why?"s take over. 

Today we treat our jobs, our education, and even hobbies (!!), as means to an end. We treat them as mere tools to achieve something higher (mostly money, sometimes fame, rarely anything else). And for this we have abandoned what we would have loved to do, to do something that we hate, or are frustrated with anyway. So, if you achieve the desired outcome (=cash), you are elated. If the result fails to meet your expectations, your happiness is utterly ruined. You hate which you might have loved, and absolutely detest with all your soul that you already hated. 

Imagine travelling to a place you desired to go with blindfold over your eyes. You only get to open your eyes at the very end. You never realize how you reached there, what treasures you missed along the way, and now you aren't even sure you reached the right place! What if fate played a dirty trick and you ended up in a place ugly as hell? All the blindfolded journey you didn't try to take the blindfold off, just because you were expecting heavenly beauty! What an astronomical let down! Perfect recipe for great unhappiness. 

To 'expect' is to make your happiness a slave to fate. 

No matter how much meticulous dedication you put into your work, fate can still ruin the results for you. Maybe you burned the midnight oil for an exam for months, and on the day of the exam you fall sick and are unable to perform. Maybe you toiled to teach yourself music, wanting to sell your albums, but despite creating great music, you're unable to get those sales. Maybe you desired to raise your children well and wanting them to do well in life, you left no stone unturned (even sacrificing all your desires). But eventually, they become delinquents, quite contrary to your will. How crestfallen and frustrated you'd be? 

All of this could be solved by the simple mantra, "Enjoy the process, forget the outcome." It is the process that you have to spill your love and passion over. If you have any idea about the final outcome, let it be only for providing you a direction to move towards. Do not give your heart to it. If you want to be a sculptor like Michelangelo, or a music composer like A.R. Rahman, let that end be your guiding light and not the flame of your heart. That flame you keep alive to illuminate the ground immediately ahead of you, the first step, and the next, and then the next....

Love what you do with all your heart. Even if it is not a position as great as you wanted, it's still your lot-- accept it and own it. If you are unable to, find a way to love it (this will require some creativity and effort on your part). If you're unable to, find something else to do. Keep experimenting and tinkering with how you do things, to make things interesting. That'll keep monotony away and increase your know-how. Each scribble on the page, each bit of code you type, each recipe you prepare, let it be the labour of love. 

If you do this right, work becomes play. You enjoy it. The present becomes enjoyable. And, if you're passionate, work becomes an act of love. It is no lesser than the highest act of devotion/worship. Lord Shri Krishna, himself was the epitome of serenity and play (all that he did was 'leela' = play). To love work, is to merge in the moment, in the divine.

When paralyzed with anxiety of the future, just think of Krishna's advice, "Follow karma, worry not about the fruit." And if you're not reaching where you want, don't worry and don't hurry.... Maybe you're not the Ferrari of Formula 1; maybe you're the slower Rolls Royce(Oh boy, I know you got class!) Good luck.