"Be Water, My Friend." How Bruce Lee’s philosophy empowers your creativity and unlocks your success.

Empty your mind.

Be formless, shapeless, like water.

You put water into a cup; it becomes the cup.

You put water into a teapot; it becomes the teapot.

You put it into a bottle; it becomes the bottle.

Now water can flow, or it can crash!

Be water, my friend.

Be Water, My Friend – The True Teachings of Bruce Lee begins with this philosophy which is one of Bruce Lee’s most famous quotes. Written by Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, she illuminates us on her father’s most powerful life philosophies.

The story behind how Bruce’s relationship and belief with water began when in his younger years. Bruce was extremely energetic during these years leading to ill-discipline that would be noticed by his master, saying to him to conserve his energy and never to asset himself against nature. As a punishment, his teacher told him not to practice in class for a week, a torturous feeling that was as if telling Bruce not to breathe for a week.

While cruising out on the Hong Kong harbour, he reflected on his teacher’s lessons but was unable to understand his teachings. In his anger, he leaned over to strike and punch the South China Sea, and this motion was the moment he had a revelation.

He looked at his hand, wet from striking the water and noticed –

"I struck it but it did not suffer hurt, again I struck it with all my might yet it was not wounded. I then tried to grasp a handful of it, but this proved impossible. This water, the softest substance in the world which could be contained in the smallest jar, only seemed weak. In reality, it could penetrate the hardest substances in the world. That was it!

I wanted to be like the nature of water."

Thus began his relationship with water, an element that is soft yet strong, natural yet able to be directed, detached yet powerful and above all, essential to life.

I took in the inspiration and saw how creative Bruce is with his teachings. Here I share what I learnt from reading this book, how creativity is linked to the concepts of water, and how water’s metaphor to creativity equals your success just like it did for Bruce Lee.

Water is formless and shapeless, as is a creative person’s infinite imagination

Bruce Lee says, "Be formless, shapeless, like water. You put water into a cup; it becomes the cup. You put water into a teapot; it becomes the teapot. You put it into a bottle; it becomes the bottle."

As water can become any shape, our imaginations must have the same ability in order to inspire ourselves with the next idea. Previously I described in my ideas and connections article that our minds can shape new thoughts through the connections it creates from all the experiences, lessons and memories which blend together to create new ideas.

Our imagination is like a funnel. The top of the funnel is like a wide net to capture new ideas from what we learn and experience in our day to day lives. If we don’t have this funnel, the bottom part dries up without anything new trigger inspiration and fuel our imagination. The more we feed this funnel, the more potential we have. As water enters the top of the funnel like ideas entering our mind, water comes out the other side, just as new ideas sit steady in our mind until we’re ready to utilise them which reveals itself as our creativity.

Creativity requires not only imagination, but also something else to arrive at its outcome. It is a combination of several different things: Talent, imagination, application, and effort. As water creates a shape based on its conditions and surroundings, a creative’s imagination is as every bit formless and as unique as the shape that water takes.

Water flows, as does a creative in a flow state

We all know water flows. It either flows around the obstacles in its way or through obstacles either through a torrential current that crashes, or a slow weathering that carves its way like how it carves a canyon through mountains over time. Water moves in a direction that will allow it passage, undeterred and unbothered, fulfilling its nature of being in flow.

To be like water as a creative is to be in a state of flow. In modern day times we know this motion as a flow state. A flow state is a moment of deep focus where we conduct our peak performance, being completely immersed in the task at hand, lose track of time and a sense of the outside world.

Our work becomes automatic and enjoyable. It is the right level of challenge where it’s not too easy that it becomes mundane, but not too tough that it dismays any attempts. With our skillset at hand, we know we’re able to test ourselves to make progress, and nothing is more rewarding than the natural high and satisfaction of learning something new, achieving a new stage or status or witnessing change in the form of progress.

Water makes progress as do we when we’re in a flow state. A creative in a flow state knows how to keep going, whether to persevere, pivot and experiment with something new entirely as long as they hold the belief that the activity is achievable. Like water, a flow state is always in motion, where hours pass by and becomes timeless and the motivation becomes intrinsically rewarding similarly as water knows to always be in flow.

Water is relaxed and ready, as is a creative being calm and resilient

Remember back in the day as kids and when we observed a body of water, we throw rocks into the it only to see the rock disappear under the water’s surface? (I hope other kids did that and not just a random curiosity that I had!) The water makes way for the rock, accommodates it within itself then the surface returns to being calm again.

Water is always relaxed and ready until it needs to be something else. It could be the calm serenity of a lake, the ocean waves crashing onto the sandy shore or when a cloud of droplets become large enough to fall as rain.

A creatively intelligent mindset is calm and resilient, who if they’re faced with a problem, they can adapt to changing circumstances. To be adaptable and resilient means possessing the ability to be calm, to be able to cope and recover quickly from difficult situations. It’s the ability to persevere in the face of life’s challenges, overcoming setbacks and bouncing back whenever things don’t go your way. Whether a creative is facing a rainy day, angry unreasonable people at work or getting lost and not sure on where to go next, a creatively intelligent person is able to stay calm under pressure, because they know they have all the tools and resources to get them out of any situation they end up in.

These people make the most out of any situation. They're probably ridiculously positive during bad times. They know how to be above the noise or know that chaos means opportunity.

As water is calm, relaxed and ready, so is a creative during tough times, calm yet able to navigate through all sorts of scenarios, being ready to adapt and be flexible or become something else entirely as required.

Be water, my friend.

Imagine if you could learn to be that open, to be in such a flow state and to always be ready and calm? The idea of being like water is to attempt to embody the qualities of fluidity and naturalness in one’s life. Water can adjust its shape to any container, be soft or strong, or simply and naturally always be itself while always finding a way to keep moving and flowing, just as a creative or rather, how all of should be in the pursuit of success.

If you enjoyed this read, please leave a like and a comment. Consider?subscribing to The Creative Catalyst Newsletter?to avoid missing out on future articles. I also invite you to join the?Proximity Is Power group, which is a tight-knit community get-together every Wednesday night where we discuss various topics to learn and grow together, and is a great way to meet new people and expand your network!

Feel free to get in contact with me too! Happy to connect and hear about your creative ventures.

Stay creative, always.