There is a premium given in this society to the people who take ownership of the work. We praise people doing good work, make role models out of them, and often cite their examples while talking to our kids. I often fail to understand why people need to be motivated to do good work. Isn't that quite natural to us? Isn't that in our genes? Isn't that the purpose of life? If we are not here to do good work, to explore ourselves, and our true potential, then why are we living in this world? Just to have some repeated sensations of some tasty food, physical comforts, social validation, and so on?
Had the single-cell amoeba not done good work, life would not have evolved into bigger creatures. Had the monkeys not made efforts to walk on their feet, human beings would not have been born. Had human beings not made efforts to talk and develop a language for communication, we would not have been able to communicate and I would not have been able to write this post. Had some humans not invested their time and energy in the development of the internet and bloggers, this blog would not have reached you. Today, when we communicate so freely, and share our ideas, and thoughts over the internet, the credit goes to everybody starting from the Big Bang to the amoeba to all the creatures that helped life evolve in the form of human beings, all the human beings that helped us being civilized, to all the scientists who helped us being able to communicate.
Even if we leave aside the anthropological perspective of life, even during this lifetime, so many people contributed to our lives. Had the parents not taken to pains of giving birth to us, we would not have come to this world. Everybody in the family and society took the pains to share resources. The teachers and schools provided us with the infrastructure and guidance to learn. So many mystics wrote down their life experiences in the form of beautiful books such as Life Divine. So many followers took the pains to put their messages and videos on YouTube so that we may benefit from their experiences even after decades of their demise. Farmers produce the crops for us and soldiers take care of the borders and as and when we fall ill, there are doctors to take care of us. There are drivers driving trains, buses, and cars that take us to the schools and offices every day.
Now, with all this background, I fail to understand why somebody needs motivation, ownership, or appreciation to do good work? When so many people have done their part of good work, then only we get some opportunity to do the good work on our part. We explore this world through our work. It is not so that work is a burden. Arjuna could make his life meaningful because he fought the battle of Kurukshetra. Had he run away from the field, he would have lived a very unfulfilling life. Had Einstien not worked hard out of his curiosity to understand the reality, he would have died having lived a very unfulfilled life. As a matter of rule, if somebody lives a life of absolute comfort and pleasure, without doing the work assigned to him, that would be probably the most unfulfilled life. When fulfillment itself comes from the work, why do we need any other motivation to do the work?
I feel that the problem lies in the ignorance. When out of ignorance, we set the center of our lives around comforts, pleasures, and social validation, we want to have more and more of these. We are unable to realize that the more we get these comforts, pleasures, and validation, and greater our craving for getting these. We become so obsessed with these that we need motivation to even work. We need some external reward to do the work that our society or organizations want. We negotiate that we will work only when we get some position, posting, or appreciation. Since most people prefer comforts and pleasure to work, the few who own up work (in anticipation of some awards or rewards) are appreciated by society. We, as a society, fail to realize that we end up living at a very minuscule percentage of our capacity and we completely give away our potential to grow. When we understand the true meaning of life, we take ownership of the work, without doership. We explore our fullest potential while doing the work at hand, not in anticipation of some rewards or awards but for the sheer joy of work. We explore our hidden potential with every action. There is no restlessness or hurry. There is just a joy of exploration. There is no destination to reach, rather the journey itself is the destination.
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