Taming The Power of The Small

One of the few benefits of this imposed time spent in isolation is the rare opportunity to catch up on all those books I’ve been meaning to read. I love the idea of immersing myself in those tomes of philosophy and economics that were recommended to me years ago. Or going through Bill Gates’ top 50 books for 2020. Or that poetry book my Mum gave me one year. Or that novel that Richard and Judy rated so highly.

How good I’ll feel about myself having put this spare time to good use.

But obviously I haven’t gone anywhere near these books.

I have, however, spent many an hour keeping up with the funny videos being circulated on WhatsApp, been draw into the rabbit hole of BBC News making me feel ever more despondent about our future economy and found every household distraction known to man in an attempt to keep myself busy. I just can’t seem to help myself.

So this morning I made a concerted effort to do something constructive and came across a rather obscure but totally relevant piece (when the student’s ready the teacher will appear etc) on just this phenomena of being distracted.

It references the ancient Chinese wisdom of I Ching and the concept of The Taming Power of The Small. I won’t be able to do justice to the true insight held within these wise words; that’s the problem with dipping in and out of great works. But as the piece talks about our natural human tendency to become submerged in unnecessary and irrelevant details I feel pretty well equipped to talk about the subject.

The author asserts that most of us live our lives simply getting by. We don’t think too much about what we’re here to do and what life’s all about. And because we don’t have a clear path to follow we can become the victims of all the meaningless details that surround our daily lives.

However, we can Tame The Small by applying our energy only to that which serves our higher purpose and sticking to our chosen path. This allows us to make our journey of a thousand miles by focusing on the next small step. Without our higher purpose in mind, we can spend all our energies going round and round in meaningless circles. And that’s exactly where I have found myself these last few days.

This concept really struck a chord with me. At this precise moment in my own journey, filled with a great deal of uncertainty and a fair bit of fear, this piece of timeless wisdom absolutely nails it. All I can do is have faith in my higher purpose and focus on what lies right in front of me rather than worrying about where the future may or may not take me.

This sounds simple enough. And it is simple. But that doesn’t make it easy. That’s because focus is all about daily, persistent, consistent activity. It’s doing not thinking. And that means taking control of what’s going on in my head. No easy feat by any stretch.

So what do the wise guys of China suggest we do to conquer our mind and get on with the daily, persistent, consistent stream of actions? Be determined they say. But determination needn’t be the huge effort required to read that pile of books. Determination is built upon the rock of the very smallest of acts in the right direction. “Every intentional act is magical”.

This is the nugget I’ve been looking for. The simple and easy way to bypass the meaningless minutia is making sure the minutia I get caught up in is serving my higher purpose. Be determined to do the very small but very focused next right thing.

For many of us right now, our inner energy is going to be seriously lacking. We’re going to be finding it harder and harder to be enthusiastic about life. And this is going to make it harder to focus and find even the smallest bit of determination to do the next right thing. Without that focus and determination we’ll drown in the mindless details surrounding us and waste our energy complaining about things; vocally or mentally.

This energy needs to find its higher purpose. Something that takes us beyond the mundane and miserable details surrounding us. I’ve seen so many heroic acts of selfless service in the last few days. It’s inspiring. Picking up that book this morning. Writing this article this afternoon. They aren’t heroic acts but they are the things I can do right now. They nudge me ever so slightly along my own purposeful path. And they make me feel that all will be well in the end. Wherever that end maybe.

Good luck to everyone today in all your small magical acts in the right direction.