Simply, Freely, Doing

It just struck me that that line I keep repeating (most recently here):

Most singers become singers because they want to be singers, not because they want to sing.

Is incomplete. It should be:

Most singers become singers because they want to be singers, not because they want to sing (if that strikes you as a pointless distinction, that means you are, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the former).

Don’t strive to be a teacher. Strive to teach!
Don't strive to be a lover. Strive to love!
Don't strive to be a kind person. Strive to be kind!

This is what the gurus mean re: "transcending ego" (a musty phrase that needs to be retired and replaced by something more modern). They don't mean "ego" in terms of egomania - "I'm so awesome!" They're pointing to the subtle self-reflection where you're watching yourself do, rather than simply, freely, doing. Don't then strive (as everyone who hears that advice stupidly does) to be someone who simply freely does. That's the same error! Just stop watching yourself. You're not starring in a movie. Put everything you've got into doing the thing...rather than being the doer of the thing.

Don’t strive to be a teacher. Strive to teach!
Don't strive to be a lover. Strive to love!
Don't strive to be a kind person. Strive to be kind!

The cinematic view of "me" is a horrendous interference (have you noticed how awful most singers are?). It's ironic - perhaps the height of irony in all human experience - that the trick to raise your value is to completly stop trying to raise your value.

This isn't some lovely platitude. This is the whole ball of wax. I'm revealing the trick. For free! And it's just a shift of perspective. A re-framing. Instantly available and effortlessly easy. The only barrier is lazy habit.

In fact, what I'm proposing is easier. It's easier to simply do the thing you do for its own sake than to contrive some cinematic you grandly doing the thing. And that's the problem! If your energy and attention are divided between doing and seeming, you can't give the doing everything you've got. It takes cognitive and emotional assets to mantain a "Hey, look at me!" loop. Free up those assets and direct them to the doing, and you might become someone worth looking at!