Today we ask that you let go of your need for specialness.

This is related to the message from a few days ago, about letting go of the need to “be somebody.”

“Specialness” is an insidious desire.  For when specialness is the primary motivating force behind one’s actions, there is nothing you can do that is pure-hearted and truly loving.  

All action becomes a matter of calculation:

If I take this action, will it increase my specialness?

Will I receive more attention?

Will I gain status?

Will I gain wealth?

Will I gain power?

Will I win fame?

If these kinds of questions are the motivating force behind one’s actions, it is a very sad thing.  Humans in the grip of this consciousness never experience lasting joy, love, or satisfaction.

For the desire for specialness cannot ever be fulfilled.  People who need to be special will never be special enough — no matter how much wealth, status, or fame they accrue.  They will always be hungry.  They always crave more, like people who are addicted to a terrible drug.  Indeed, the desire for specialness is an awful addiction.

If you observe yourself craving specialness, or making these kinds of calculations, please know that it is not going to work out for you in the long term.

You may briefly fulfill the desire in the short term, but in the long term it will always fail.

This is why we observe so many tragic stories about celebrities — people obsessed with specialness, who cannot bear not being the object of the world’s attention.  What miserable lives such people lead.

If you are doing what you do in the hope of increasing your specialness in the eyes of the world — know now that you are doomed to long term failure, and suffering.

Do what you do out of love.  This is the key.

Not for specialness, fame, wealth, or status.  

Do it because there is a deep sense of joy in the action.  It is nothing special.  But there is this wonderful satisfaction that comes with a job well done.  

No one else needs to know what a good job you’re doing.  You know.  That is all that matters.

And if other people notice, wonderful.  But your own sense of well-being is not predicated on their attention.

It is not about being special.  It is about doing what you do, with a sense of love and commitment.

Live in this way, and you will know true and lasting joy.