In the mid-1990s, there was a TV commercial about daiquiris.
A woman wants to make drinks for her friends, but she’s struggling.
Chopped fruit flies everywhere. The blender overflows. The process takes forever.
And her friends complain: “Is it ready yet?!”
It’s all a mess.
The solution? Tropical Freezes:
The slogan at the end of the commercial has stayed with me ever since:
“It’s already ready already.”
In other words, why struggle if you don’t have to? Here’s an easy fix.
We want easy.
We want seamless, out-of-the-box solutions.
We want our coffee waiting for us when we arrive.
In short, we want what we want, when we want it and how we want it.
Why?
Because we earned it. We’re entitled to it.
Damn it, we deserve it!
But life doesn’t care about what you deserve.
There is no ready-to-go daiquiri or EASY button.
Nothing comes easily. Nothing gets handed to you.
In life, things take time.
Do you know how long it takes for asparagus to grow from a seed?
It can take more than five years.
The agave americana plant blooms every 30 years on average.
And the Puya Raimondii, known as the “Queen of the Andes”?
It blooms every 80-100 years.
Life is in no hurry. It takes its time and follows a process.
Why are we in such a rush?
“You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of your work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction. Perform work in this world, Arjuna, as a man established within himself — without selfish attachments, and alike in success and defeat. For yoga is perfect evenness of mind.”
The Bhagavad Gita, 2:47-48. [Emphasis added]
Beginning about 10,000 years ago, civilizations were born through agriculture.
Our history — told through the sweat and toil of countless generations — is rooted in the earth.
We were farmers. We are farmers still.
Our land is our life — what we sow, what we reap.
The daily work. Sunrise to sunset.
Our hands go into the soil. We bake under the Sun.
And we plant seeds for tomorrow.
The Bhagavad Gita teaches us that our work should speak for itself:
“You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of your work.”
The only thing that we can control is our effort.
The only thing that matters is the journey.
The only thing that we have a right to is our work.
What about the corner office?
The beautiful spouse?
The life free of disease?
Those outcomes — luxuries, really — exist beyond our control.
But we can’t accept that.
Instead, we attach ourselves to these things or ideas, and then we despair when we don’t get what we want.
Didn’t get the promotion?
Partner left you?
Family member unexpectedly fell ill?
Life, and all of its unpredictability, continually humbles us because we believe that we deserve better.
But we can’t grow asparagus today and expect to have it on our dinner table tomorrow.
We are entitled to our work, nothing more.
The fruit — in whatever form it takes — will come when it’s ready.
So, what can we do?
We can focus on our process.
Focus on the little things that we can control.
Focus on the seeds that we plant.
Don’t worry about the fruits of our labor.
Don’t get attached to a particular outcome.
Just like farmers can’t control the rain, we can’t control the external world.
In the end, all we have is our work — the time and love that we invest in our life, our craft.
Let that be enough.