You are entitled to the work

Here I am excited by 'acquiring' a large succulent off someone's front nature strip in 2017.

In my defense, it was fair game.

Although my beer crate wasn't designed to handle such a whopping plant and carrying it made my bike un-ridable, I was undeterred in capturing an unexpected reward on a night out with the wife.

Whether it survived the trip to be planted (and my potential inebriated state) was not something within my control.

I was entitled to the work of getting the plant home, not the reward of the plant itself (happy to report it survived)

At the time I was not aware my actions were familiar to the Bhagavad Gita quote:

You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions.

I've seen it translated into 'You are entitled to the work, not the fruits of that work.'

I discovered this quote from working with an offshore team, some of the hardest working people I've ever had the pleasure of working alongside.

Back in 2021 we had a major project for our SAM team in which we were to moved from a paper & pen counting of inventory to an android based solution.

We collaborated strongly, worked long hours, planned and replanned but had no control over what the outcome would be.

Thankfully for our team, we had a wonderful outcome which I GIF'd and shared far and wide:

And yet, we were not entitled to the outcome of the project, all that we were entitled to was the work itself.

It is a mantra I use to catch myself when thinking I deserve something or should get something (like a plant on a nature strip!)

What happens (or doesn't happen) when I stealing acquiring plants, land a major project or even a post content to a blog (👀) is not within my control nor is it the reason for doing something.

I am entitled to nothing except the work, that is my reward and that should be enough.