How can I disconnect my idea of identity from achievement and the need to achieve success in finding the best job or prove to others that I am good?
I only have one thought about this. Try to excel in everything that you do and forget everything else. This is not only an advice; it is something which I have lived in my life. I do not care about achievement, success or failure, for that is part of my natural life. I don’t expect everybody to like me. There are many who dislike me too. That is part of the natural life. I do not want to achieve anything, because achieving, or trying to achieve something, is a natural expression of my mind. I am not elated in success, nor deflated in failure, as it is all part and parcel of the life that we live. If I can focus on doing the best I can, in whatever things I touch, then I am a better man than everyone else. That is my belief, and that is my life.
We are identifying with success and failure because of vasana. Vasana and kamana are desires, infatuations and expectations. If we simply focus on excelling in everything that we do, in the best manner possible, this problem will never come. Ultimately it is my life which I have to live, and I am responsible for my life. I have to enhance the qualities, strengths and expressions of my life, and for that I do not have to have the opinion of other people, who are not living the life that I am living. No opinion influences me.
By trying to do everything right and excel, whether it be manual work, intellectual work, yoga work or any other type of work, I have to become better than what I was yesterday. That is my inspiration. In this situation, there is nothing which becomes a barrier or an obstacle in my life. It is continuous achievement every day. If today is a failure, tomorrow that failure will become my launchpad to become better than yesterday.
28 May 2023, Ganga Darshan, Munger