I was listening to an Oprah Podcast recently with Ekhart Tolle on his book, The New Earth, and one section really blew my mind. He posited that the ends NEVER justify the means (I’m paraphrasing here but that was the overall idea). And I had to really pause and think about that one. Because we’ve heard time and time again that the ends justify the means yada yada yada.
But when I stopped to think about it, I realized, no. It actually doesn’t. Because how many times have we sacrificed, given up everything, and gotten that thing we really wanted, only to be happy for exactly 7.3 minutes and then…want something else. It makes NO sense.
His explanation was more metaphysical though- the energy you put in and the intention with which you do the work is more important than the actual outcome. And I really believe that to be true. Because if I think back to the times in my life when I’ve been the happiest, it’s been when I was actually…doing the work. I was DOING. I wasn’t thinking or overanalyzing or worrying or observing. I was doing. And it was fabulous. And come to think of it, even if it didn’t work out the best, I enjoyed 90% of what I was doing, and is it was all right. But turns out, when you’re just enjoying doing whatever it is you’re doing, most of the time, things work out.
And even if they don’t, guess what, net net, you’ve been happy 90% of the time. That seems like a pretty good outcome.
How’s that for a mind bender?
So I Quit My Job and Moved to India 