Be like water: A lesson for life and business from Bruce Lee

“Empty your mind. Formless, shapeless, like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the bottle. You put it in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teacup, it becomes the teacup. It can flow, it can crash. Be water, my friend.” – Bruce Lee

In “The Tao of Jeet Kune Do”, his treatise explaining the philosophy behind his martial art, Lee says, “The consciousness of the self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo”.

Profound words, but their meaning was lost on me. It took a series of injuries and repeated setbacks in trying to rehab for me to fully comprehend what Lee meant. Although it is easy to write-off his philosophy as meant for combat or martial arts, it would be unwise. Jocko Willink, former Navy SEAL and author of “Extreme Ownership” and the “Dichotomy of Leadership” said, “Combat is reflective of life, only amplified and intensified”. And so, anything that works in combat works even better in life.

“Combat is reflective of life, only amplified and intensified”

Jocko Willink

If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that life is unpredictable and hard. I started the year rehabbing a back-injury I picked up last year. Then, I hurt my shoulder. And then suffered a freak re-injury to my knee. Everything I knew about training was failing. And every time I made some progress, I would invariably push too hard and fall back two steps. That is when I understood the wisdom of Lee’s words, “be like water”. I derived three principles for myself to absorb and live the philosophy. They are:

Principle: List and understand the rules you are governed by

This is the first principle for multiple reasons. We are used to living our lives on autopilot, without awareness of actions, leave alone understand why we do what we do. Water fills the vessel because it is a liquid under gravity. It follows those rules. These are the ethics and principles, our code of honour for life. These form the foundation of our personal leadership, our operating system so to speak.

For instance, the basic principle I follow when coaching, “first, do no harm”. Ensuring that I never put my student in a situation where they can get hurt. It makes it easy for me to slow them down when they want to push. And to hold them at a point until they can perform the movement perfectly.

Knowing what you will and won’t do will make it easier for you to respond to whatever vessel you are put into. What is gravity for you? What rules can you absolutely not violate? If you haven’t listed them out, do it now, you will find your reaction to situations improve.

Principle: Understand the situation, and adapt your operating system

Before water can become the vessel, it must splash around, and understand the very nature of the vessel. In a way, water is trying to “know” the vessel to the best of its capacity. This isn’t something water “does”, it is the nature of water under the rules of gravity. A new situation affects both the what and the how. Our role becomes to understand the nature of the new possibilities available to us, and how we can fulfill our rules. Any lapses in our operating system that might have been minor issues could become major problems in this situation. The cool thing is, unlike water, we can change the rules (at least some of them) we are governed by.

For instance, taking care of our physical fitness is a should have or a nice to have feature in our operating system. But in the new norm of working from home, where are sitting for hours on end, this can lead to problems. As I see many people developing back issues in these times, it is clear that what was working, or not that big a problem earlier is a major issue now.

Working from home requires updating the rules of work and the rules of our personal lives. In the clash of work-life balance, work often wins partly because we associate our self-worth very closely with our jobs.

For leaders, this is even harder. Leaders must balance not only their own personal responsibilities, but they must also now take care to balance the goals of the company with the health of their people. A delicate balancing act to say the least.

In such situations, get to know the vessel completely. List out everything that has changed, every rule that you must cater to, and then list your priorities. Know the vessel before you can fill it.

For me, the moment my injury happened, my priority shifted from performance to rehab. In hindsight, it is natural. But my coach at the time and I ignored repeated warning signs, minor irritations in the back, slight discomfort. We stuck to the program rather than immediately stop and say, “Hey! I think we need to evaluate if the rules have changed”. And this brings me to the next principle.

Principle: Let go and become the vessel

This is the simplest to grasp, but the hardest to execute. Let go of what was, and deal with what is. Goals must change to the new reality. If the new reality allows you to flow, you flow. If it holds you up, you hold and survive.

I learned this the hard way when I kept eyeing my pre-injury goals even after the injuries. As a result, I delayed my recovery. When the situation changes, goals must change to adapt to it. It is no longer about what you were doing, or what you want to do. It is about what you must do. As in this year, it is about survival and personal health.

What do you think?

Do you agree with the principles? What challenges has the lockdown thrown at you that being like water can help overcome? Please leave a comment and I will reply to each of them.