Maximizing results without trying harder.
The cosmic implications of keeping score.
My dad plays golf several times per week. He worked hard his whole life for the privilege of being able to do that now, and I love it for him.
While visiting, I’d sometimes notice he’d return home in a sour mood because he hadn’t played well.
When I last asked, he told me he’s cracked the code now and has been playing much better.
Apparently, he’s stopped tallying his score.
He said he realized that he played much better when not thinking about the score.
It was a deeply impressive cognition from such a numbers guy who typically sees the world in percentages, prices, and probabilities.
I couldn’t help but wonder if it had anything to do with the recent three-year anniversary of his learning Vedic Meditation.
My teacher’s teacher, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, spells out “the technique for achieving the maximum result from an action” in his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita:
This does not mean that Arjuna is not to fight for the Sake of winning the battle; it does not mean that the action should be done without caring for its result…the result of action will be greater if the doer puts all of his attention and energy into the action itself; if he does not allow his attention to be distracted by thinking of results. It is to ensure the greater success of an action that the doer is asked not to concern himself with results during the course of the action.
—Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita Chapters 1–6
So there’s an important nuance.
Maharishi is not suggesting we become complacent or stop caring about the result.
He’s saying that having the intention for the best result, and then forgetting about that intention in order to focus on the action, will bring the best result.
…But this does not imply that he should be indifferent to results. If he becomes consciously indifferent to results, the process of action will certainly become weak, and this will also weaken the results. Having begun to act and having become intimately engrossed in the process of action, he should fulfill the action with such complete devotion and undivided attention that he is oblivious even of its fruits. Only in this way will he achieve the maximum results from what he does. If a man is held by the fruit of action, then his sole concern is centred on the horizontal plane of life.
Some people are very competitive and results-oriented, which is fine.
The advice here is that the best way to achieve those results is to stop thinking about them and focus instead on the action.
It may seem counterintuitive, but there is tremendous significance to this idea, which of course transcends the golf course.
Let’s discuss these and other ideas during Collective Effervescence, our online group meditation series, this Sunday May 25 at 12PM ET. Drop in for meditation only (first 30 min) or stay for discussion + Q&A on this and other life topics from the Vedic perspective. Join the WhatsApp group to receive reminders 24 hours before each session, or click Subscribe on this page to have all upcoming dates automatically sync to your preferred calendar.