If you find yourself paddling a canoe in a swift and powerful current then there are two ways you can go.
In the first you focus on exactly where you want to get to at any point and put in your full effort to get there. This means fighting against the power of the water.
It feels strong and bold. You’re giving it your all and holding nothing back. And from the outside it looks impressive. Man meeting the full force of nature head on — and overcoming it.
But how much of this is bravado? How much energy is wasted?
The second possible approach is more measured. You ask how you can work with the river rather than against it.
Now things look very different.
You’re not looking to use muscle, but insight. You’re asking where the ‘right’ part of the current is. Where it naturally wants to go.
And when you do this, just an occasional light touch of the paddle is all it takes to keep yourself sat there with the minimum effort.
Now you’re doing much less. And all your actions are aimed at maintaining your position rather than going somewhere else.
And this is only possible because you’ve flipped how you see things.
You’re no longer thinking of the river as something outside you to be wrestled with. Instead, you see yourself as part of the current. And you’re trying to maintain your ideal position within it while it moves around you.
You can apply this flipped perspective to all sorts of other situations. Stop fighting the current of events. Rather look to position yourself in the right point of the flow.
When you’re positioned well then all the moves you make come easily and naturally in their right time. You don’t have to rush and hustle to get things done.
Life seems almost effortless.
Our default is to see the world outside as a static separate thing. And you’re the one who navigates through it.
What would happen if you saw yourself as an inherent part of the dynamic system all around you? And your focus was on how to position yourself in that system in order to harness its power.