Vishnu Kant Srivastava & Arun Kumar
“You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions.”
Two friends (the authors listed above), both above 60, one already retired and one contemplating retirement in near future, started to discuss testing the waters of the world of blogging. Knowing well that getting a toehold in the world of blogging is a daunting task, the discussion turned somewhat philosophical towards whether can one engage in the practice of blogging for its own sake and not be worried about being praised and admired?
The thought was nothing new. It relates to an age old qustion — Can we engage in actions without being influenced by the expectations for a desired outcomes?
Well, considering some of us may be looking for meaningful engagements in our life in retirement after 30-years of work, can we feel engaged in writing blog posts without worrying about the scope of readership? Can we engage in an action, get fulfillment from the action and not be driven by certain expectations about results? After all, there is the old cliché that “the joy is in the journey and not about the destination”.
Pondering over these questions and having a discussion we remembered a passage in the Hindu scripture Bhgatwat Gita, where Lord Kirshna advises Arjuna in the middle of the battlefield. It happens when Arjuna’s resolve to carry forward with the battle (the action he is to engage in) starts to waiver because its outcomes may lead to death of loved ones.
Krishna said:
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि
The passage translates to “You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results (consequences) of your activities, nor be attached to inaction.”
Can we follow the ancient wisdom and not be concerned with the outcome of our efforts or hope if the blog will go viral?
Clichés aside, human psychology, unfortunately, works in different way. Through our evolutionary process, we are geared for an action-reward paradigm. Actions that produce positive results tend to get repeated and are enforced. Actions that result in negative (painful) consequences, are avoided in future. This feedback cycle, at the biological level, is one of the foundations of the evolutionary process. We are conditioned to responses to dopamine circulating in our brains, and anticipation of rewards motivates us to act. A good example of this feedback loop is performing arts.
In the world of performance arts, during the course of any performance, we need resonators, applauders, who can continuously give support by way of thumbs up or some other such sign. Applauds provide positive feedback and accentuate performer’s confidence that things are moving in the right direction.
All performing art needs resonators. If a player is performing, the claps or roaring sounds of the audience gives confirmation to the performer. A dance that gets applause sustains the continuum of action from one step to the next.
The resonator, in other words, is meant to keep the tempo high and helps the performer in the right direction. We seek a similar praise in competitive sports also, where there are competitors engaged in actions and there is an audience to give resonance to their actions.
Resonators, therefore, are an integral part of a successful performer and their progress.
Can the action-reward-habit feedback loop be overcome in more intellectual pursuits, like writing a blog during our retirement?
After all, our capacity to think, our self-awareness raises us above merely being slaved to natural laws. We are capable of venturing beyond the principles that govern natural selection and evolution.
Blogging (writing), in a way can be considered as a performing art. In the world of internet and blogging, the resonators are in virtual space, but nevertheless they are there. A stream of thumbs up and likes is meant to sustain and encourage bloggers.
Thinking of blogging as an act of performing art, however, was not much help to us. On the contrary, it generated a need for resonators and a crowd to cheer us on.
So where does that leave us? To blog or not to blog without worrying about its outcome?
The answer may be in constantly reminding ourselves of words by Lord Krishna to Arjuna “You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions”.
Krishna’s advice can also be interpreted as it is actions (karmas) that we control but desiring specific results is out of our control.
In that quest, it helps that the age two of us are at, we are not typical performers. The purported motive for our writing helps set the context. What differentiates us from performers is that we are not after fame and glory. We are not after monetizing our efforts. And further, we have the luxury and freedom of trying something and failing and then trying something else. We have nothing to prove.
The purpose of our writing is more for utilizing our signature strengths that served us well during working life and use them to fuel engagements in retirement. In doing so, our primary purpose is to seek a sense of accomplishment and a sense of having meaning and purpose in our retirement life. Blogging for us could be an action without us being unduly influenced by expectations for end results.
At our age, we can plant a tree without worrying about whether we will see it bear fruits. The alternative is to choose path that expects an audience for praise but if it does not happen then feel discouraged and gives up.
And so, we will keep posting occasional blogs without having much expectations for praise. Of course, if you press the like button, we will feel a tingle of happiness and our aging hearts will skip a beat!!
Ciao and thanks for reading.