Be like water my friend, breaking through the cracks!
“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
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
These lines make so much sense. Before you start reading my take on this read these lines at least 5 times and try to interpret different so many different things these lines can mean.
The things that stand out for me are:-
Persistence. Lee is saying to keep working hard even when the times are rough and you have a mountain ahead of you. An average human beings attitude would be to just accept the way situations are and stay stand still accepting defeat. But the difference between a successful human being and a nobody is that winners believe. They first try to make small cracks and then they start to enlarge those cracks and finally are able to take the rock apart. You should work hard every day and start seeing the small wins and keep going the bigger breakthroughs will eventually present themselves.
Law of Attraction. "If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves." This is the line Lee is talking about the law of attraction. When you have belief in yourselves people wills how up in your life and they will help you to achieve your goals. Hard work is the beginning of all greatness. Working smart is important, yes, but if you work hard, you automatically work smart because most of the people these days are not smart enough to work hard.
Open-mindedness. The second paragraph could be interpreted in a million different ways. The thing I derive out of it and is fascinating to me is how subtle the open-mindedness part is. He says that you should be formless and just flow. You should flow through and everything and change according to the situations around you. Different moments will require different actions. A successful person is proactive in those situations and always changes according to it.
Humility. You should embrace everything and everyone that comes in your life. Penetrate mind and body with your thoughts. You might like some people but that does not mean you will remain rigid and not help them to realize what they are and what they could be. The gist of it is that you should never be angry, instead be still and calm like water.
Channeling your Actions. The last part is where Bruce Lee says a very important thing. He says water can crash as well. Everyone has potential to achieve greatness in life, the only difference is how do you channel your energy. Life will always provide you with two options, it is up to you which option you want to take. One will take you places the other will just leave you standing still and we all know still water is never fit for consumption.
Keep Believing, Keep Achieving!