How much effort is just enough? That is the question we are examining today in the second installment of our series, Finding the Zen in 2010. I love the definition in the Urban Dictionary for zen: “a total state of focus that incorporates a total togetherness of body and mind. Zen is a way of being. It is also a state of mind. Zen involves dropping illusion and seeing things without distortion created by your own thoughts.”

We in the West have been taught that working harder and continually seeking more, more, more, is the standard to strive for. Working harder, we are told, will yield more and more results. But as Price Pritchett wisely points out in You2, “Sooner or later you’re going to reach the point where you can’t try any harder…Sometimes, in fact, intensifying your efforts produces nothing except bigger problems.”
If this sounds familiar, then what is the alternative? Surely we are not to simply sit back and wait for life to bring us what we want on a silver platter? No, that too is an extreme.

Zen offers us a third way, that of “right effort.” Here is what Suzuki says in our text for this series, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind:

“[J]ust to do something without any particular effort is enough. When you make some special effort to achieve something, some excessive quality, some extra element is involved in it…So you should get rid of that something which is extra…So try not to see something in particular; try not to achieve anything special. You already have everything in your own pure quality. If you understand this ultimate fact, there is no fear.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Marcia Bench is a Spiritual Business Strategist and Coach for conscious entrepreneurs in service-, information- and professional businesses. She is the CEO of Purposeful Entrepreneur.com, as well as the Founder/Director of Career Coach Institute and other coach training companies, with more than 23 years of experience in coaching and consulting. She has authored 23 books including The Tao of Entrepreneurship and has given hundreds of live and teleclass presentations.
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Bench; All Rights Reserved

Comments are closed.