The Power of Grace and Effortlessness
It's been many months since my last post. The entrepreneurial journey I find myself on continues to be very challenging and at times downright difficult. Along the way, I have become an expert at devising creative solutions to impossible problems.
Impossible problems. And in nearly every case, besides having to find the courage to face the problem vs. Succumb to the instinct of running away from it or hoping it'll somehow go away on it's own accord, I've found that solving them requires ease and grace.
What the hell does that mean? In Eastern philosophy, by way of the famed "I Ching," there is a hexagram in the I Ching entitled: "PO." The chinese symbol for PO roughly translates in English to the word "Collapse." Essentially, the superior man, when confronted with a seemingly impossible, critical and possibly fatal life situation, his salvation requires him to do nothing. To not strive, not force, not impart one's will to the situation, but instead face it with a "stillness" of purpose and being.
Weird, huh? Yeah, I used to think so, but often times than not, this is the correct strategy.
It is the difference between being "forceful" and being in a state of "power." To confront conflict with calm and grace isn't a new thing. Ghandi, Martin Luther King and others have frequently confronted crisis in this matter.
So the lesson for me this year is to invoke the state of power vs trying to force the outcome I'm seeking.
On a lighter note...
This weekend, I found an enjoyable way to practice grace and effortlessness while under extreme pressure. I'm a pool-junky (before you ask: No, I don't play for money). Anyway, there are two guys I play on a regular basis, one's a strong, near-pro level player, the other a guy whose been playing for over 20 years.
Before this weekend, I would regularly lose about 80% of the matches I'd play against them. And no matter how hard I tried, no matter how much of my "will" I attempted to impart on the game-the outcome was always the same. The more I wanted the win, the harder I shot and the more risks I took.
The key to being great at something comes from one's ability to be consistent, so every weekend, these guys would destroy me with their consistency.
Well, this weekend, I finally got it--it isn't about winning, it's about finding the joy in whatever you are doing while at the same time being grateful for the experience, win or lose. Suddenly, I'm not struggling: ball after ball flow into the pocket and the cue ball goes exactly where I envision it should go. I won 95% of the games I played, and I stayed in this effortlessness state for 6 hours. And with grace and effortless, I was able to achieve complete control over the outcome-by eliminating my attachment to it. I didn't care whether I won or lost and my reward for this was to win nearly everything...
This is the state I seek to achieve in every area of my life. Grace...
Impossible problems. And in nearly every case, besides having to find the courage to face the problem vs. Succumb to the instinct of running away from it or hoping it'll somehow go away on it's own accord, I've found that solving them requires ease and grace.
What the hell does that mean? In Eastern philosophy, by way of the famed "I Ching," there is a hexagram in the I Ching entitled: "PO." The chinese symbol for PO roughly translates in English to the word "Collapse." Essentially, the superior man, when confronted with a seemingly impossible, critical and possibly fatal life situation, his salvation requires him to do nothing. To not strive, not force, not impart one's will to the situation, but instead face it with a "stillness" of purpose and being.
Weird, huh? Yeah, I used to think so, but often times than not, this is the correct strategy.
It is the difference between being "forceful" and being in a state of "power." To confront conflict with calm and grace isn't a new thing. Ghandi, Martin Luther King and others have frequently confronted crisis in this matter.
So the lesson for me this year is to invoke the state of power vs trying to force the outcome I'm seeking.
On a lighter note...
This weekend, I found an enjoyable way to practice grace and effortlessness while under extreme pressure. I'm a pool-junky (before you ask: No, I don't play for money). Anyway, there are two guys I play on a regular basis, one's a strong, near-pro level player, the other a guy whose been playing for over 20 years.
Before this weekend, I would regularly lose about 80% of the matches I'd play against them. And no matter how hard I tried, no matter how much of my "will" I attempted to impart on the game-the outcome was always the same. The more I wanted the win, the harder I shot and the more risks I took.
The key to being great at something comes from one's ability to be consistent, so every weekend, these guys would destroy me with their consistency.
Well, this weekend, I finally got it--it isn't about winning, it's about finding the joy in whatever you are doing while at the same time being grateful for the experience, win or lose. Suddenly, I'm not struggling: ball after ball flow into the pocket and the cue ball goes exactly where I envision it should go. I won 95% of the games I played, and I stayed in this effortlessness state for 6 hours. And with grace and effortless, I was able to achieve complete control over the outcome-by eliminating my attachment to it. I didn't care whether I won or lost and my reward for this was to win nearly everything...
This is the state I seek to achieve in every area of my life. Grace...
posted by Christopher | 1:20 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for sharing about what you've learned from playing pool. Life is interesting, isn't it? There are so many lessons available for us in our everyday events. We access them by practicing open awareness.
You've shared what it's like to attain true success. It's not about struggle. It's really about being in the effortless flow. No thinking or mental activity. Just pure playing! Most certainly, I enjoyed the message you have for me today!
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