Being Successful
How Do You Define Success?
How Do Buddhas Achieve Their Goals?
He constantly abandons useless mindsets and cultivates useful mindsets. He is resolute and concentrated in his effort. He never abandons his efforts toward achieving useful mindsets.
—Anguttara Nikaya 5.53
THE BUDDHA IS the spiritual father to some of today’s “success writers” whose best sellers teach us how to manifest our dreams and achieve our goals. These authors are tapping into what the Buddha knew 2,500 years ago: that the mind has immense power, if only its owner would use it well. The Buddha urges us to keep laserlike focus (okay, they didn’t have lasers in the Buddha’s day; he called it “one-pointed mind”) on our vision or objective—to be unwavering in our concentration. A man with a mission does not dissipate and waste energy on useless distractions. Nor does he cling to negative mind-sets. Sometimes those mind-sets have allure (we all know the twisted pleasures of holding a grudge or feeling put-upon), but never are they useful.
The Buddha teaches us that focusing attention on the desired goal and letting go of internal hindrances are all that is required for success. Set your mind toward your goals. Evaluate what are useful mind-sets for you. Stick to them. Do not be distracted by useless mind-sets. Never abandon your effort!
What Would the Buddha Say about Multitasking?
When the mind is composed, this is concentration.
If you cling to externals, the mind is distracted and confused.
If you are unattached to externals, then the mind is composed.
—Huineng, The Platform Sutra
FOR MANY YEARS, busy people have prided themselves on their multitasking ability—their skill at doing several things at once and so getting more done than other folks. Only one problem: in the last few years, psychologists and productivity experts have discovered that multitasking isn’t very effective on the job. Mistakes get made, details overlooked; things fall between the cracks. Productivity and quality standards both suffer. Studies support what the Buddha taught 2,500 years ago—that concentration beats dividing one’s attention and juggling many projects simultaneously. When our attention and energy are scattered, our work suffers. Very often our health also suffers, from the pressure of too many projects, too many deadlines, too much stress.
The Buddha would advise prioritizing our projects so that we tackle the most important ones first, rather than jumping back and forth between them. Our monkey mind (to use the ancient Buddhist term) naturally prefers to scatter our attention hither and yon, but the whole purpose of Buddhist practice is to tame the mind, to calm the monkey in our head, and to be fully present to what we are doing in each and every moment.
The Buddha would say, “Do less, and do better.” The devil is in the details; if we’re busy multitasking, we’re not concentrating on the important details that are going to come back to bite us in the butt later on.
What Would the Buddha Teach Us about Finding the “Right” Answer to a Problem?
If you claim a position, you don’t have the correct view.
—The V Dalai Lama, The Graded Stages of the
Path: Personal Instructions from Manjushri
THE ANSWER TO our question is paradoxical: There is no one right answer (“correct view”) to a problem or situation. As soon as we think we have the right answer, we are mistaken. But more deeply, it’s not the answer that is mistaken—the mistake happens inside us, when we think we can definitively find a permanent answer. Since everything in life is always changing, the correct view today might be incorrect tomorrow. The right answer to a problem changes from day to day, because the problem itself is always changing. And there’s more: Things change not just over time but over distance. The problem is different for others—even right now—than it is for you. Different problem, different answer.
Jean Kerr, the playwright, has said, “If you can keep your head about you when all about you are losing theirs, it’s just possible you haven’t grasped the situation.” Wise words. Feeling anxious or unsettled is understandable when things are changing as fast as they are. No one person can stay on top of things all the time. Nor are “things” the same for different people.
Frustrating, isn’t it? We humans want so very much to comfort ourselves with absolutes, to be reassured that we have the right answer. But if the Buddha is correct, and all is changing, we have to live with the anxiety and uncertainty this brings. It’s a choice: we can put ourselves to sleep by clinging to absolutes (“This is the only right way”), or we can wake up and see that we must be limber and flexible, always becoming, always changing, and always needing to find changing answers to changing problems.
Would the Buddha Admit His Mistakes?
All the evil karma created by me from of old,
on account of my beginningless greed, hatred and ignorance,
born of my deeds, words and thoughts,
I now confess openly and fully.
—Zen Gatha of Purification
CONFESSION IS GOOD for the soul—or, for hard-core Buddhists, the absence of soul. Either way, confession requires honesty and humility, and we need both.
Admitting that you were wrong, or you made a mistake, is the first important step to improvement—both self-improvement and improvement on any work project. People who never admit mistakes never get to learn from them. They are doomed to keep repeating them until someone else discovers them. People who admit mistakes are already on their way to making fewer of them in the future. Good bosses know this. They know that everyone makes mistakes, and so they trust people who admit them. That’s how to build working relationships. And good employees know this as well, and they ’fess up when they’ve made mistakes so that they can learn.
Look at what is happening in this verse: purification. Not only does admitting mistakes begin the process of learning from them, but also it begins the process of correcting them, of purifying ourselves of them. When we repeat the verse of purification, we admit our tainted past, but in admitting that taint, we also acknowledge that we see it from a better perspective. Seeing our greed, hatred, and ignorance, we also see our generosity, love, and wisdom. Admitting our mistakes is also admitting our potential greatness.
Will Being Buddha at Work Help You to Get Promoted?
High rank depends on circumstances; is only gained through effort; yet is effortlessly lost. It does not lead to contentment or happiness, still less to peace of mind.
—Jatakamala 8.53
THE BUDDHA DID not work for promotions, and neither should you. Bucking for a promotion is simply your ego grasping for attention and status. Getting that promotion is not going to make your life great, and it’s not going to be permanent, given today’s rapid pace of change. A promotion comes with circumstances, and circumstances can take it away. No, the ultimate destination of the Buddhist path is not the top of the organizational ladder. The Buddha wouldn’t do anything special to get promoted.
Paradoxically, the Buddha got promoted all the time. He had no problem with that. The Buddha was a respected aristocrat, then a venerated ascetic with followers, and ultimately the head of a whole religion. He was not afraid of rising to the top, and neither should you be. It’s just that he never cared about rank or promotion. Instead, he cared about—he was utterly committed to—doing his work with brilliance. The Buddha understood that getting promoted is a happy side effect of doing excellent work. If your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.
Where does that leave you on the career ladder? Here’s the thing: reaching the top isn’t as important as you think. What is going to give you contentment, happiness, and peace of mind is what gave those things to the Buddha: deep insight into the wonderful interdependence of things, the opportunity to make a contribution to your organization, and the chance to use your skills fully. When you do your very best work—when you’re a Buddha—perhaps you’ll even get promoted.
How Should Mindful People Celebrate Their Accomplishments?
When my success is talked about at work,
I’m quick to have everyone jump in.
But when it’s others getting compliments,
I just don’t feel like joining in the fun.
—Bodhicharyavatara 6.79
WE’RE SO HAPPY to revel in our own successes that we think everyone should just join right in. But the monk Shantideva (author of the insightful Bodhicharyavatara) notes how slow we are to join in celebrating the success of others. We pretend to be happy, but we feel resentful inside. With our bosses in particular, we often revert to childish attitudes, wanting to be Daddy’s favorite, and resenting the praise and attention that Daddy/boss lavishes on coworkers/siblings. Of course, we would never admit this out loud, but we feel it. We are like greedy children, fearful that we won’t get our share of the good stuff.
The Buddha would point out that, once again, we are succumbing to the illusion that we are separate from one another; our misperception leads us to resent others’ success. “If the pinkie successfully removed the wax from your ear, the index finger wouldn’t be resentful, would it?” the Buddha might ask us with a smile. Businesses ought to be as cooperative as hands. There is plenty of success to go around, and each person has the opportunity to be successful in his or her own way. How much happier we are when we celebrate everyone’s successes as our own! And how much nicer we are to be with. Bosses notice that, too.
Does Success Lead to Happiness, or Does Happiness Lead to Success?
Whether we are rich or poor, educated or uneducated,
whatever our nationality, color, social status, or ideology
may be, the purpose of our lives is to be happy.
—The XIV Dalai Lama, in The Spirit of Tibet,
Vision for Human Liberation1
ALL GREAT SPIRITUAL teachers throughout history have delivered the same message: The best things in life aren’t things. It is fine to enjoy money, achievement, promotions, applause, acclaim, and worldly success—just don’t confuse them with happiness. True happiness is not to be had with a big paycheck or moving into the corner office. There will always be people with bigger paychecks or more prestigious offices. If you define happiness as “getting the best,” you define yourself as an unhappy person. And the longer you practice your definition, the more consistently you’ll be unhappy. This is true even if the things you want are good things or inner achievements. What if the Dalai Lama had decided he’d be happy once he succeeded in freeing Tibet? Let’s see … That famous smile? Gone. The Nobel Peace Prize? Too depressed to do the work that earned it. The pride, the humbleness, the resilience, he has shared with his people and all the world in his 50 years of exile? Sorry, you can’t expect a man frustrated for so long to be any of those things!
But he is those things, and he did win the Nobel Prize, and, though Tibet remains oppressed, he is still smiling. Why? Because true happiness comes not from external success but from the internal peace of feeling your life aligned with your values and beliefs. It comes from serving others without attachment to reward or success. It comes from being who we want to be. If happiness is the purpose of our lives, it can come only in our acts, living those lives authentically as ourselves.