Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily.
We are continuing with the important theme that in life we are not supposed to focus on external accomplishments, or what's going on around us because that's not what's important. What we have control of, and what we get rewarded for are the decisions that we make internally. If they work out, fine, but that’s not in our control. There's a famous saying from Rav Yisrael Salanter: Do, and don't accomplish, which means your focus in life should be on doing. Accomplishments are not in your hands. Accomplishments are in the Hands of God. It's not necessary for the accomplishment to happen. I always give the mashal of running on a treadmill versus running on the street. In both cases, you're running, and in both cases, the goal is not to get someplace. The goal is to burn calories. You can burn calories on a treadmill and not move anywhere, or you can burn calories when you're outside and moving someplace. But as far as calorie burning is concerned, it doesn't make a difference if you move from point A to point B. If you have to get someplace fine, but that's not what you're doing when you're exercising.
I happen to be a person that likes to accomplish, and that's one of my weak points. I like to see what I'm accomplishing. Just doing doesn't really do it for me. But there's a saying that we are called human beings versus a human doings, and there's a further level called the human accomplishing. When I exercise, I don't like using a treadmill because I don't move anywhere. I like to go on Ocean Parkway where I see my movement and see that I'm going someplace. There are actually treadmills and rowing machines that have screens in front, to make it look like you're moving someplace. They're playing on that need to feel like you're accomplishing, and not just going through the motions. But again, even if you’re just in one spot, you are accomplishing-inside of you although it may not a be a measurable accomplishment to the outside world. This is important. The Midrash Raba in Bereshit, 62, 2 tells us that when Rav Abahu was dying, he had a vision where he saw 13 rivers of a wonderful perfume, and he said, “These are all for me? I said I toiled for naught.”o
The obvious question is, Rav Abahu was a great rabbi. Why would he possibly think that he would not be rewarded? One answer that I heard was that Rav Abahu had done a lot, and had worked on a lot of things, but many of his projects were not successful. Therefore, he wasn’t sure that he would reward, because he hadn’t seen success. Then he saw that Hashem was rewarding him, for what was happening inside of him, regardless of what actually showed up on the outside.
Of course, it's the cherry on top that we should be able to see the accomplishments of our work, but that's not the main goal. The main goal is not the accomplishment. The main goal is the effort that you put in, and the choices that you made.