Be Water, My Friend: Fluidity, Flow, & Bruce Lee
“Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
Bruce Lee said this to the fictional character Mike Longstreet in 1971. It’s a summary of the Taoist concept of Wu Wei, which literally translates into something like ‘effortless action.’
Lee and his co-author expand on this idea in “Bruce Lee: Artist of Life:”
“When my acute self-consciousness grew to what the psychologists refer to as the “double-bind” type, my instructor would again approach me and say, “Loong, preserve yourself by following the natural bends of things and don’t interfere. Remember never to assert yourself against nature; never be in frontal opposition to any problems, but control it by swinging with it. Don’t practice this week: Go home and think about it.
“Upon reflection and meditation in the following days, Lee came to some enlightening conclusions about his ability to practice Wu Wei, or the art of detachment, making the connection to water and to the fleeting influence of thoughts and attachments which normally cloud our thinking and color our outlook on life.”
I think every Asian kid is a fan of Bruce Lee. And the more you learn about him, the more there is to admire.
One thing that I’ve always been fascinated by is that Lee pioneered his own form of martial arts, Jeet Kune Do, as a hybrid of many different styles (a precursor to modern MMA). Lee originally learned Jun Fan Gung Fu, but he felt bound by it and denounced the system. And when he formalized Jeet Kune Do as a result, he emphasized that it was not an institution — it was a tool in which to see ourselves.
And this philosophy, this mashup, is the ultimate expression of fluidity.
Individual Fluidity (Or, Going With the Flow)
In the last newsletter, I said that the future of work is more human and more fluid. I talked about the people a lot, and today, I want to explore the concept of fluidity.
I define fluidity as the overall mental, physical, and emotional divergence from the rigid, binary, and compartmentalized to the flexible, dynamic, and integrated. This is ultimately manifested in the constant shifts in who we are, where we work, when we work, how we work, who we work for, and what we want out of our careers and life. Inevitably, those states change depending on where we are in our life.
As a working mom, and being part of the sandwiched generation, I am continually pivoting to manage personal and professional commitments that often make it more difficult to create the traction that I want at the rate that I want. I’ve personally had to make a mental switch from expecting things to be fixed and predictable to one where I have had to just go with the flow.
And with the world in constant flux for the past 30 years, in both good and bad ways, fluidity has been the default state for younger generations who want to survive and thrive. Due to the evolution of technology, due to the jobs that were available (or weren’t), due to a more diverse society, due to lower barriers of entry to just trying a new opportunity on for size, fluidity has been both necessary and, for many, freeing.
If we are all rapidly changing and evolving, if we’re getting intentional about it, we need to get better at going with the flow — which, importantly, doesn't mean walking through life without a plan.
In Jeet Kune Do, they do not practice learning patterns like the practitioners of most martial arts. Lee saw this rigidity as a weakness; it only prepared you for certain situations. Combat was shapeless and ever-changing, like water. So the obvious solution, for Lee, was to practice adapting and responding to any situation.
And I think of preparing yourself for life in much the same way. If you learn about who you are, why you think, what you think, what you are both good at and enjoy doing, what you absolutely never want to do again, then you can unlock a lot of answers about what to do next. And if you are constantly practicing personal development, you’re constantly preparing yourself for new opportunities.
In “Building the Business of You,” I called this approach to managing your life the Fluid Career System:
Spotting the trends (internally and externally). Because you have to get a lay of the land before you can chart a course. So this includes taking stock of what’s happening in the marketplace in addition to taking stock of yourself. What are the environments you like to work in? What are the roles, skills, and interests that you have? Where do these things intersect?
Creating your compass. This is really identifying the goal you want to work toward and then figuring out the approach (or approaches) to help you realize it.
Preparing for change. And that's all about dealing with that fear we all commonly have in starting something new or different, and really embracing that fear as part of the process. What is a small thing that you could just do and try to help you build that courage and confidence along the way? Hearing stories from people who have already walked the journey I intend to walk is a huge help for me, personally, when it comes to preparing for change.
Building your network. The relationships you nurture will have a profound impact on what paths are available to you and help you get clarity on what to be aware of or even what to do along that journey.
Building your skills (hard and soft). This is continual skill development, being a lifelong learner, and Larisa reflected this during every stage of the journey that she shares in this episode.
Fluidity isn’t just a matter of necessity — ‘going with the flow’ enables us to gain traction and to adapt to the uncontrollable and unpredictable situations in an ever-changing world.
Fluid People Need Fluid Organizations
So if today’s modern worker has to be fluid to survive and thrive, what does that mean for organizations?
It necessitates a culture that makes it safe to fail and learn from failure. It necessitates a team structure that can scale up, down, and horizontally with great agility. It necessitates organizational investment in every level of personal and professional development.
And that starts with bridging the gap between beliefs, motivations, approaches, and fundamental goals within your organization. Having a shared purpose, or having a way to align your peoples’ priorities to your organization’s priorities, is key.
Leaders also have to understand that you can’t do any of this just once. The strategic planning process needs to transition from a sequential and fixed approach to one that is dynamic and evolving.
Technology enables companies to achieve this transformation — but fluidity demands it.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn as part of Connie Steele’s monthly newsletter, The Human Side of Work. You can find the original article and subscribe to the newsletter at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/water-my-friend-fluidity-flow-bruce-lee-connie-wang-steele.