Many of what Bruce Lee was advicing are not meant for Martial Art only.
It’s a life philosophy that you must think a bit more and then stop thinking at all.
“Be like water” means simply that you shouldn’t be too static in what you do and don’t force your self against things that happen in your life.
When water flows down the mountain, it will go in those directions that are in his path.. it won’t try to stay and it won’t try to go a route that is not meant to go.
It will partially go down litle scratches on his path and follow every direction gravitation will drag him.
Look.
In this life if you want to reach a specific goal, you usualy have to “fight an invisible force” called “negative thoughts”.
You will constantly have those “I can’t do it, I am bad, what if.. what if not..” thoughts and sometimes life it self with test your motivation on his own special way. Something that will force you to give up on your way of success and in those moments.. you really have to be like water.
Be resistance.
Be fluid, what do you need to do RIGHT NOW when the life is forcing you out of your planned way?
What can you do that you can continue your path, but not give up? Giving up is never the solution and the life is even worse when you don’t find the courage to fight for your goals. Later or soon you will ask your self “how would be life if I would did this and that?” and you will feel sadness, because you never tried it.
Let me use another quote of Bruce Lee:
What is highest form of technique?
“To have no technique”
What are your thoughts when facing an opponent?
“There is no oppenent, because the word >I< does not exist”
“A good fight should be like a small play.. but played seriously”
“When the opponent expands, I contract.”
“When the opponent contracts, I expand.”
“And when there is an opportunity.. I do not hit.”
“It hits all by itself.”
So if you fighting for your dreams or if you fighting for anything in your life, chances are that you are feared of consequences.
Fear of unknown, fear of success, fear of failure.. those are common things if you ever leave your comfort zone. Some people have problems speaking with other people, for example man talking to women. Some already have problem to speak to any kind of person. For other persons it’s totally fine. While others fear to take responsibility.. there are many reasons and situations we just feel uncomfortable.. we fear to take that risk and this constant pressure inside your body comes and you feel really terrible.
This are thoughts only.
Usualy because you are not well prepared enough.
Like in Martial Arts, it’s not important to know 10000 techniques, because chances are that you only remember 1–2 within a split second of choice time. So you can’t even take all informations and if you try it.. you probably become stiff and can’t react in time anymore.
If a bee flies into your face, your reflexes kick in and you immediately pull up your hands and try to protect your self.
Imagine for the last 1 year the only thing you trained was that one specific technique that will 100% guarantee to catch that bee without hurting your self.
Now if you see that bee and think about.. “ok, it will come.. then I will do this and that and.. OH MY GOD ITS IN MY FACE ALREADY” and you will feel the sting of the bee.
Why is that so? Because you tried to force it. You weren’t fluid as water.
Water isn’t thinking what it should do next. There is no future and there is no past. At least it’s totally not important for you, because you DON’T KNOW what will happen. You can’t know what will happen, therefore you can’t plan what is to do.
Imagine you trying to be the best basketball player and after 3 years of training, you hurt your knee and can’t play bastketball anymore. This is totally normal in the world, therefore you must be able to adapt. “Ok, how can I make the best out of this situation”.
One last thing I learned my self from my mentor:
Preparation.
What ever you do, try to be well-prepared.
In fact, be OVER prepared.
This way you can trust your self. You can trust your self to know how it should react by ITS OWN especially on situations which haven’t planned.
If you plan to hold a discourse and you took some time to prepare some answers for questions from other people.. suddenly someone asks you a question that you haven’t think of.. something that completely takes you out of your preparation.
If you are over prepared.. for instance if you talking about programming websites.. and if someone asks you a very specific question.. if you know are over prepared.. if you are good at what you do.. well, chances are that you still can answer ANY question, because you simply are prepared for any situation.
And the hard part here is not the “knowing” it self.
The hardest part here is to have 100% confidence and trust in your self.
100% trust that no matter what is thrown at you,.. the 100% trust that you will SOMEHOW find a way to solve that problem. It doesn’t have to be a perfect solution, but trusting your self, being that confident knowing that you will beat any enemy, any endboss, any cheating AI.. you WILL find a way.
This confidence is the hardest to archieve.
The better prepared you are, the more confidence you can find.
That way you can react.. without reacting all.
That way you can hit.. without hitting at all.
If the world is throwing you a punch, you block with you hand.
If the world is throwing you a kick, you block with your feed.
If the world is shooting at you, you evade.
If the world is pushing you inside a box, you become the box.
If the world is dragging you, you become a chewing gum.
Be formless. Be shapeless.
Like water.
Be water my friend.
Don’t try to plan every second of your life.
Have a goal at the very far of your sight and then step by step try reaching it and there will be many times where you have to react in THE MOMENT and don’t force your self “But I must do this..”, because sometimes you have to be formless and do something else, before you can reach your goal.
If you go from point A to point B, you can’t always go in a straight line.
Hey, sometimes you need to move around a tree.. sometimes you must go above a mountain and sometimes you must tunnle under a wall and every now and then, you must go back a little bit.. just so you can start running for a big jump you need to take. Don’t be stubborn and force a straight line of it. If the current situations requires you to bend.. then do bend!
