Without Fail: Non-Attachment to Results

 

Frustration comes from repeat failure and it is unnecessary.

There are two ways to conquer the frustration of failure. #1 is to stop trying. #2 is to stop being emotionally involved in the outcome of the endeavor.

The hoopla of success and the devastation of failure places people on a roller coaster ride of emotions and causes instability in any endeavor. Your ups and downs are based on the results you are getting and that will wear you out.

In practicing singing, it is not uncommon to get very angry at yourself, the music, the difficulty of the text when you just don’t feel like it is working. When you feel that emotion you are punishing yourself and create a spiral of negativity.

Likewise when you overreact to success it may give you a boost for the moment, but when you come out of it you ”return to earth” and life just seems dull again.

Boredom is a lot of things, but among the elements of boredom is the prospect of doing small tedious detail work on something that requires much patience. In fact, the ability to work on difficult problems in detail without feeling that desire to ”go away” is basically the difference between the highest level of expertise in any given field.

To be a Doctor, a Lawyer, Accountant, Scientist, Musician or any field of activity that requires detailed and refined skills is usually populated by people who have an even keel of emotions and don’t get overly excited or dejected about their work. It takes too much energy.

It isn’t uncommon for these people to have more or less uninteresting personalities, and folks like me who are totally personality based are challenged greatly when faced with the task of doing detailed painstaking slow work. In fact, speaking for myself, it almost makes me sick.

I’m not lazy, but as I said once to a lawyer when telling them I had considered becoming a lawyer at one time, ”It bored me to tears.”

There is a double standard when it come to things in life and it is that if you wait until you are perfect you will never get started, but on the other hand if you don’t get everything correct in a formula right down to the tiniest detail the whole thing won’t work at all.

Whether it is a math problem or performing a song, being perfect is important but that isn’t what makes something compelling, the thing that is compelling about anything is the expression in it, the art in it and ultimately the personality it is done with.

Emotions make it very difficult to be consistent and do the mundane things to get what you want out of life. You can either stop trying or start reigning in your emotions, and the only route to that is through your thoughts.  

Good Luck!