Doing vs. Being

I got a letter in the mail the other day; meant to inspire me to donate to the university I'd just graduated from on the front cover it had the words, "DO SOMETHING" and then surrounded my all these uplifting adjectives like: brilliant, inspiring, great etc..

I'm sure it represented the peak of some marketing firms output and had made some individuals very proud of their work. Yet it irked me. To me it represented one of the common failings of our society and the pressure that we all feel to Do something amazing. That our success or failure as an individual is measured not by who we are, but by the deeds we accomplish. So the individual who gets to the top, who becomes famous, who wins a nobel prize, is the winner. They have Done something to be proud of, irrespective of whether they did it out of love, lying, cheating or hard work. Furthermore, accomplishments like these are often beyond our direct control and arrise through a combination of hard work, timing and luck (or workings of the universe). While the majority of people, as winners are usually the minority, keep striving for some external goal that can never be obtained. It this, our measurement of success by what we Do that I don't like.

Then what is the alternative? There is a parable in Indian yogic tradition of a master who got his student to build a house out of rocks (do something). Once he'd completed the house and was quite proud of it, the teacher told him to tear it down and start again. Eventually the student realised that it was not what he did that was important, but who he was and how he went about the process of doing.
So instead of measuring yourself by what you acheive, be it brilliant or inspiring, aim to measure yourself by who you are. For someone who is quietly brilliant or deeply inspiring does not have to keep reaching for these external markers of the state. They instead live in a way that is brilliant or inspiring and this aspect touches all of their life. Whether it's their profession, their relationships or the "mundane" aspects that make up the majority of our lives.

Rather than Do Something, Be Something.

For me, someone who is and strives to live in a way that is (insert adjective from above), is much more inspiring than someone who measures their (adjective) by what they do. So there is a difference in two artists who paint the same picture, but one because he loves to paint and the other because he just wants to be famous. It is also a way of being that everyone can achieve if they set their mind & heart to it. A way of being where everyone can achieve and are not divided into winners/losers. Finally, its a way of being that we're not taught at university and that letter ended up in the bin after I took a photo of it...