See the Job, Do the Job, Stay out of the Misery

“Don’t sweat the small stuff…and it’s all small stuff.” - Richard Carlson, Author, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff…and it’s all Small Stuff

In 1959, a mother of four in Los Angeles, at whose home Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was staying during the early days of his Transcendental Meditation movement in the U.S., approached him about her job. She had been working part-time at the Greek Theater in ticket sales and public relations, and didn’t like the work much anymore, but felt she couldn’t get another job as she was near retirement age, and still needed the income that it provided. The guru looked at her and said three sentences that burned into her consciousness right then and there and for the rest of her life. Those three sentences were as follows: “See the job. Do the job. Stay out of the misery.”

Those 11 words have also burned into my consciousness. As a life coach, I often find myself uttering them to many of my clients, as well. I can’t remember the last time that a week went by without me saying them to at least one client. Often more than one client hears them. Am I simply mimicking the maxim of Maharishi, parroting the proverb of a prophet? Hardly. I’m sharing wisdom that can help get you through some of the most difficult situations that life places in your path. It can be in your marriage, at your job, with a client, with a child, with a parent, with a friend. It can be anywhere. Maharishi’s 11 words are so profound because they guide us to taking care of the things in life that we have to take care of but don’t always want to. They’re things that we tend to procrastinate. (As the author of How to Overcome Procrastination Now, and the developer of the workshop, “How to Overcome Procrastination Now,” I see this tendency on a regular basis in the students who take these workshops and the many of them who become coaching clients afterwards.)

The three sentences are directed to three different parts of our inner being: the first part - seeing the job - relates to our mind, which can clearly comprehend the situation. The mind belongs to one part of the three fields of life: thinking. The second part - targeted to our mind and body - addresses a second field of life; namely the field of action. The third sentence is directed to our inner Being, in the transcendental area of life, or the field of Being. Action, thinking, and Being are the three fields of life, and Maharishi was encouraging her to allow her consciousness to rest in the field of Being, unaffected by the field of action. The 48th verse of the "Bhagavad Gita" sums up this proverb beautifully.

The Sanskrit - “Yogastah Kuru Karmani” - translates as “Established in Being, perform action.” When your consciousness is silently established in that inner Rock of Gibraltar within you, in the Transcendent field of life beyond all thought, perception, and action, you effortlessly see the jobs in front of you, do the jobs in front of you, and experience no misery about them. But when your consciousness is not established in that field - and you probably know very few people in your life who are so established - you need to remind yourself to stay cool and not get lost in the challenges that you face. All things must pass, we were told by George Harrison, who had also studied with Maharishi in India. Knowing that these challenges are transitory helps you navigate them with little drama or misery.

Focusing on the misery - as so many people do - only strengthens the misery, as you know from the Law of Attraction. Focusing on seeing and doing the job, on the other hand, focuses you on getting something done, moving you in to achievement . Achievement puts your consciousness one step closer to fulfillment - or at least evenness of mind - rather than two steps back to misery, worry, and anxiety.