“Act without expectation.” ~Lao Tzu

We had some lovely sunny days last month and like everyone else, it really got me thinking, “Ah, winter is over and the Summer is coming.” It also gets nature thinking the same thing, and daffodils start coming up and lambs start coming out.

It lasted for about two days, where it was unusually mild for the time of year and then the temperature dropped and it started raining again. It can be easy when Spring starts to get excited about Summer, but it is still a few months away and the weather at the beginning of this month has proved that we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves.

As soon as things start moving in a direction, or you start taking actions towards a goal, it can be very easy to get excited and expect that it will all come to fruition immediately after your efforts. I am extremely prone to being impatient for results and it leads to disappointment. Yet, everything has to follow its natural course.

The only way to be rid of suffering disappointment is to act without expectation – or at least to act knowing that it is only the good act itself that can fulfil you right at this moment in time. Any consequence of it will come in its own time.

In a speech at the University of Houston , Mathew McConaughey talks about delayed gratification and mailbox money, “If i do my job well today and that movie keeps rerunning on TV – I get cheques in the mailbox.” He suggests we should think about our actions in life in that way.

If you put your whole heart, attention and energy into what it is you are doing now and try and let go of your expectation of the outcome, you will feel a greater sense of satisfaction in what you are doing. You will always know you have done your best and any positive outcome really is a blessing and not something that you compare to fantasies in your head about how things might be. So start where you are, when you take your action, do your very best at whatever it is you are passionate about and accept that at some time in the future at a time unknown to you, your cheque will arrive in the mailbox – but don’t make it about the cheque, make it about the action.

Vhairi x