Action Without Attachment to a Reward

“Doing your best is taking the action because you love it, not because you’re expecting a reward. Most people do exactly the opposite: They only take action when they expect a reward, and they don’t enjoy the action.”

- Don Miguel Ruiz in The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book)

Giving up the attachment to a reward is hard. We’re reward-driven beings.

On an evolutionary standpoint, one could argue the drive to reward = survival.

But I’m not talking about survival. I’m talking about being happy and alight with passion + purpose.

Your juiciest work will happen when you’re doing it because you love what you’re doing.

The fun stuff doesn’t happen with money as the reward or any other external exchange.

You ask, “What if I’m not in my dream job and am just working to pay the bills, etc…?”

Well first, you’re not in your dream job YET.

Second, how you do anything is how you do everything.

Your dream job won’t bring you happiness if you don’t have your head around joyful productivity.

Fall in love with whatever work you’re doing. Being present is a delicious, sexy state.

If you can find fulfillment in being mindfully aware, in whatever task you’re doing, that’s when life really opens up.

More opportunities will come that make you really happy. And then more opportunities will come your way that will make you even happier.

And the important thing is you’ll be there to enjoy it.

Thich Nhat Hanh talks about drinking a simple cup of tea:

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment.”

If you can learn to take action without expecting a reward, with the action itself as it’s own reward, every action will become enjoyable.

How could you apply this to your own work?