Attachment to results

Here's a passage from the Bhagavad Gita called to my attention by Misty Diaz:

Those whose consciousness is unified abandon all attachment to the results of action and attain supreme peace. But those whose desires are fragmented, who are selfishly attached to the results of their work, are bound in everything they do.

This is a very important principle for those who work in the helping professions. Discouragement can easily set in when a social worker tries to help people change and they don't change or a teacher tries to help students learn and they don't learn. That doesn't mean the work isn't valuable. It means the work must be done for its own sake and not for the outcome. Working for a specific outcome all the time is definitely a prescription for burn-out.