Don’t work. Just play.

  You will never be happy if you pursue something strictly to attain a specific goal. Because, with every goal you accomplish, there will always be one ahead of that one; there is always something to be done. But if you step back out of your mind and see the world revolves on its own axis, the moon appears when the sun goes down, the waves rise and crash on their own, the grass grows all around, and birds chatter. Your body maintains homeostasis on its own. See it as though you've already arrived, and there is nothing to do because it's already been done. 

If all your life you only do things because they need to be done, your life will be a never-ending hell. You'll always do what needs to be done and never do anything you want. Life becomes torture, like pulling teeth just to rise out of bed in the morning. But if you understand there is nothing to figure out and nothing to be done, you act from your depth, a place of empowerment rather than fear. You do it not because it is required of you but because it arises out of necessity. Necessity of your soul to express itself. Not because the world says it must be done. And it doesn't have to be done any way anybody has done it before or told you but in your own natural way. 

  Let's say, for example, you want to learn how to play the guitar. And your only intention is to play. Like a child plays with his action figures, you play with your guitar. Simply because you are interested in learning an instrument, no other reason. You aren't saying I need to be good at guitar because people will judge me if I'm not. I need to make money with this guitar, or it's pointless, I need to be at this level in this amount of time. You'd create so much anxiety and stress for yourself that you'd quit, or you'd get good, but the whole time, you'd secretly hate playing because it becomes work. Suppose you pick it up because you want to play, and you aren't worried about practicing in a strict way that bores you because some teacher tells you it must be done this way because that's the proper way. In that case, playing becomes working, and learning becomes a chore. 

If you've allowed yourself to play around with no attachments to outcomes, two to three weeks pass, and you've gotten pretty good at the three chords you know because you allowed yourself to be a beginner and mess up repeatedly. You can also have fun with the three chords you strum without sounding any particular way because that's the whole idea when you pick it up to have fun. And you had no idea you'd be this good in three weeks since holding that foreign object in your hands. You recognized it wasn't life or death to become an expert at the guitar, and you didn't take it seriously or beat yourself up for strumming the wrong chord. You didn't compare or judge yourself against anyone further along. You accept where you are in the process, realize it's beautiful to be exactly who you are and allow yourself to follow your curiosities. 

The magic happens when we follow our curiosities, not when we achieve some goal in the end. We're always looking for the finish line, and we miss the gems along the way. Happiness is only ever found in the here and now. Allow yourself to fully engage with what you are doing in the present, and you will find joy. 

  Now, returning to the guitar analogy, throwing away any ideas of what sounds good and bad, you allow yourself to be a beginner every day you pick up the guitar. And who knows what you'll sound like a month from now? Two months? A year? You could be really good! You may even join a band even though you never intended to do so. Because that is life! You follow a breadcrumb, and it leads you to the bread factory where the bread is made, and you learn about who you are, and life becomes a beautiful song. Not something to hurry to the finish line to find out what it all meant. Do you want to find out what it means to be human? Drop down and play the game of life. Really play! Don't just think about playing. And don't believe for a single second you have to regard anything as work. It's all a game. When you let go of any outcomes, you may find yourself somewhere you never would have imagined to be in a million years. 

  Apply this to any area in your life, not just playing the guitar. Be willing to be a beginner every single day of your life. Act as if you are learning an instrument. It is foreign to your brain; you're unsure where to place your hands or what any of the buttons do. But hold it for a while, not just in your hands but in your heart and spirit. Let it play you. Don't just live life, let life live through you! We've learned to take life so serious, we don't allow anything we do to be fun. It is worth it to struggle over something that gives you vitality. Most of us suffer from work that drains our life force, and culture views this as an admirable struggle because you know you can't be successful if you don't burn out for it. That model of success needs to be left behind. Something is only worth laboring over if you don't have to labor over it. But if it is your choice to devote yourself to the creation and there is no fixed outcome in mind or ideal of how it ought to look, then you will play and sing your heart out with anything you pursue. You are more powerful than you know!