There is a beautiful story of Narada in which Narada grows arrogant of being a devotee of Vishnu and Vishnu sends him to the Earth to get a glass of water. When Narada reaches a village, he sees a beautiful girl and falls in love with that girl. They decide to marry and have kids. Then Narada faces great financial difficulties and fights with neighbors and when he becomes quite sad, he recalls Vishnu and suddenly Vishnu appears and asks him for the water, Narada was supposed to bring. This is such a powerful story that depicts the nature of perspective.
This often happens to us. An infant has no fear of examination. However, as kids grow, their minds are primed for competition. Their life's purpose is defined in terms of success or failure in the examination. The innocent minds of the kids accept the worldview presented to them by their parents and societies. Since their vision of life becomes limited, they develop ambitions for getting admission to the best colleges and at the same time develop a fear of failure. I keep talking to the kids and the fear of failure is so ingrained in the kids that often justify that fear as being a "motivator" for hard work. Our perspective of life has become so narrow that we want to take support of "fear" to work hard. Some of them have a very strong desire to get fat pay packages to get the objects of their desire and that acts as a strong motivation for their hard work.
There is no doubt that "fear" and "ambitions" help us delay gratification and work hard. But they also create inner conflicts. Our mind is divided into two parts. One wants to concentrate on studies and the other wants to have instant gratification. We often go through the dilemma of attending a party or studying for an exam, settling for the rank we got versus investing one more year in the preparation, taking up a job after graduation, or doing PG. All these dilemmas would be ingrained if we make "fear" or "ambition" the center of our lives. Because in either case our "awareness of life" is quite limited. Either we want to have some "known pleasures" or do not wish to forego such pleasures. We can't look at the life from a larger perspective.
Why do we need "fear" or "ambition" for hard work? Can we think of Einstien working hard for fear of losing the "known pleasures" or with an ambition to get "such pleasures"? When we have "passion" for anything, we naturally work hard. In fact, we never feel the hard work to be "hard" because we "flow" with that. We do not need to wait for the rewards. The rewards are instant. When we live life with "passion", every moment brings reward. Of course, the reward is not in terms of "known pleasures" but the "joy of discovery". When we have a passion for mathematics, we try to solve mathematical puzzles and problems not for getting marks but for the joy of discovery. We work harder and harder till the solution comes and that process itself is so enriching.
"Fear" and "ambitions" can take us a few miles ahead but not beyond that because all our "fears" and "ambitions" originate from "what we already know". When we "love exploration" we get a very vast canvas to draw the painting of our life. "Love" fills us with "passion" and "passion" brings "perseverance" and when we live life with passion and perseverance, fears automatically drop because all our fears are products of limited awareness. We often laugh at our fears as we grow older because now we can see life from a wider perspective. Most of the ambitions of our childhood become our own "laughing stock" as we grow older. "Love" for "exploration" fills us with a never-ending zeal and enthusiasm to work. Not to work hard but to work with joy. Fear and ambitions can make us work hard and harder but "hard work" itself implies "hardness" and "discomfort" and there is a limit to that hard work due to that "discomfort". On the other hand, "love" and "passion" are limitless. That is the reason scientists like Einstein who had love discovery could do the work that no ordinary human being can even imagine.
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