In my last blog I talked about how the mind-body divide, or in today’s terms, the focus on work-life balance seems to have broken career balance. And as soon as I hit publish on that blog, I could hear the questions coming. If I’m not supposed to focus on having work/life balance, then on what am I supposed to focus?
The answer comes from yoga philosophy, namely the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna (in the guise of the charioteer) tells Arjuna, a warrior who is about to go to war against his relatives, about the concept of dharma.
What is Dharma?
Well, Dharma isn’t just the name of a hippy-like lead in a late 1990s/early 2000s sitcom. Okay, I admit, that reference was probably a bit old for some of you. But in all seriousness, dharma is a foundational concept in many Asian religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. It translates into duty, cosmic order, or right way of living. Sounds deep and serious, doesn’t it? And also, what does this have to do with being an author.
Let’s examine a couple of quotes.
Considering your dharma, you should not waver. For a warrior, nothing is higher than a war against evil. – Lord Krishna
In this quote, Krishna is telling Arjuna that considering his dharma, in other words, the fact that he’s a warrior, then there is no higher calling than to be in a righteous war. Or, to put it in simpler terms, there is no higher calling than to following your dharma (your duty or your purpose) and in doing so, you are living in the right way. This means if you’re an author AND your calling is to tell stories (i.e. you’re not doing it just for money or to sell your services or whatever, but that you truly need to write because it’s something you keep coming back to), then your highest calling is to write stories.
Better is one’s own dharma, though imperfectly performed, than the dharma of another well performed. Performing the duty prescribed by one’s own nature, one incurs no sin. – Lord Krishna
If you are acting according to your own nature, even if you do so imperfectly, then you are on the right course. In other words, stop stressing about whether you’re good enough or whether your work is perfect. If you’re doing the best you can with what you know to write your stories, then you are doing your dharma.
There is the concept of balance. Writing 24/7 and neglecting everything else means you won’t be able to write. There is a need to find a balance between caring for yourself, writing, and taking care of everything else. I’ve also found that when you focus on your dharma, which would include all your purposes or all your duties, and do them as well as you can, then the balance will begin to come easier. I’ll talk about this in a future blog.
Instead of trying to “balance” writing and life, because as we’ve discussed over these last two blogs, there is very little separation between them, When we focus on our purpose, our true nature, we no longer have to divide our life into pieces. Instead, we can move forward knowing that as long as we follow our inner compass, we are doing the right things.