Motivational Quotation - Discuss
Ok, to counter-act my girly-girl fuchsia hat post, I need to post a pretentious philosophical quotation for discussion.
I have this hanging on my bulletin board as a daily motivational reference:
You have a right to your actions
but never to your actions fruits
Act for the action's sake.
And do not be attached to inaction
Without concern for results,
perform the necessary action;
Surrendering all attachments,
accomplish life's highest good.
It is better to do your own duty
badly, than to perfectly do
another's; you are safe from harm
when you do what you should be doing.
That's from the Bahaghavad Gita. At first when I read it, it irritated me because I think that we all should strive to achieve high standards. But after studying on it and discussing it with friends, this had become a pretty influential personal mantra.
Tell me what you think.
posted by Marcia @ 11:56 AM
2 Comments:
in the buddhist community service group i've worked with for years, we always talked about the importance of process and learning from the process. you can do everything to the best of your ability, but sometimes outside things will thwart you (like a snow storm on the day of a major event you just spent weeks putting together).
i'm not sure about the act for action's sake part. i feel like you need a goal. if action and inaction both get you to the same place at the end, does it matter which way you go? maybe it's just a mindset thing- trying is always better than being frozen in fear
as for "it is better to do your own duty badly" i don't know about that. i always feel horrible/guilty if i'm doing my duty badly...
i think my motivational quote would be something shorter, though. maybe something like "do good work and eat well and laugh a lot"
it's harder than it sounds.
I like your quote "do good work and eat well and laugh a lot"!
I think that the reason "It is better to do your own duty badly, than to perfectly do another's" speaks to me so much is because I can get absolutely paralyzed by fear of doing my own job badly. And the phrase reminds me that I should just do it -- this is my calling, it is what I am "supposed" to be doing and that if I just act, then I am doing what I'm supposed to do. I could probably sell movie tickets really well, right? But that's not my duty, that is not what I am called to do.
Somehow that is freeing, and then I can act. I can do something.
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