Why does one remain confused in decision and action?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: Why am l not able to take action, why do I remain so confused with respect to the fact that I have to do something? I’m trying to fake that l am immersing myself in something l like but my mind is still confused.

Acharya Prashant:

‘There is no obligation to act!’

The world that we live in places a compulsion upon us:

“Be an actor, be an achiever, go ahead do something!”

‘It’s not mandatory!

Look at the mango tree, the fruit is probably the action of the tree. The tree has done something. For years, many years there is no action; no visible action, and then one year you find that there is the fruit– little flowers, buds, and then the fruit. The tree does not act under any compulsion to act. Something keeps ripening within and ultimately that ripeness shows in the luscious mango. The ripeness of the mango is the ripeness of the tree.

You are saying you are not able to act. “Aren’t you acting every day? Why do you find that action insufficient?” It’s not a lack of action that bothers you; it’s lack of prescribed action that bothers you, it’s lack of action that ‘confirms’, that bothers…