The Promise of Flow and the Paradox of Control

Tao te Ching Verse 2:
MANTRA: "When my work is done, it is forgotten. That is why it lasts forever."  ~ W.Dyer

            The notion of "forgetting my work" is hard to comprehend and seems at first counterintuitive. I am reminded of the parts of my life that I want and crave recognition, appreciation and acknowledgment. I want awards! I want rewards! I want feedback! With regards to the work I've done for my family, there is still a part of me waiting impatiently to be remembered. This verse suggests I stop keeping score in order to be appreciated, and I let go of my expectations in order to remain important. 

           Work requires focused attention and if you are lucky you will experience total absorption and the optimal experience of flow (being "in the zone"). Once the work is finished, the way of the Tao is to let the attention focus on something new because it is in the new thing, in some cases the opposite thing that our work is meaningful.

           Duality. Focus then forget. Sadness begets happiness. Lazy and motivated, despair and hope, bored and excited. Attention is our most precious and limited resource. So when I let go, forget, and release the outcome focus of my work, deed and action, I will have more attention for singing, for gardening, for learning, for connection, for love, for flow. When I think about work as performance, this mantra speaks to the part of me that tries so hard to be good or perfect or liked. But the performance, the song, the athletic achievement, the handstand, the speech, the presentation, the joke is best when it is not for something else, but is for the sake of doing it in and of itself. This is the paradox of control described by the flow state because to be in flow we have to feel both in control of the environment and exist without control of our self-consciousness. We simultaneously let go and focus to experience the bliss that comes from effortless hard work. 

Tao te Ching Verse 2:

"When people see some things as beautiful,

other things become ugly.

When people see some things as good,

other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.

Difficult and easy support each other.

Long and short define each other.

High and low depend on each other.

Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master

acts without doing anything

and teaches without saying anything.

Things arise and she lets them come;

things disappear and she lets them go.

She has but doesn't possess,

acts but doesn't expect.

When her work is done, she forgets it.

That is why it lasts forever."