Bruce Lee said, “Be Like Water”

How We’ve Taken A Wrong Turn With Adaptability

I grew up around martial arts, and the Bruce Lee story was a part of that. We watched his movies, read about his life. He was a pop icon in our San Francisco community in the 1970’s. Despite his early death in 1973, his influence remained.

I often come across Bruce Lee’s philosophies and teachings and they frequently have timely messages for me. This is one that has shown up repeatedly for me recently, so let’s explore it.

Here’s to adaptability

~Suzanne

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One of Bruce Lee’s most famous philosophies is “be like water”.

This quote has many different meanings, the most common interpretation is being adaptable, both in mind and spirit. Open your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. Don't fight with your surroundings. Don’t force yourself against things that happen in your life.

There is a difference between “be like water” and “become something you’re not”.

What has happened over time is that being adaptable, and not fighting circumstances, and going with the flow has morphed into a guide to become something we are not. We are guided to acquiesce and go with the flow. We allow others to take control when we feel we can’t control a situation. We allow ourselves to be formed and manipulated away from our true design. With the rise of in-your-face advertising and social media, we are told repeatedly what the expectations are, and we need to follow or be left behind.

We’ve lost the understanding and trust in our own unique way of existing and thriving in the world.

Human Design reminds us of who we are and how we operate.

A popular directive is to “Just do it”, made famous by a Nike shoe advertising campaign in the 1980’s. This instructs us to suck it up and do the hard things. Don’t think, just do. Take charge and get it done.

The issue here is that not everyone is designed to “just do it”. Society supports it, so we try to force ourselves even if it’s contrary to our design, and then we feel like failures when it doesn’t work out. We didn’t fail, we just tried to follow someone else’s design strategy.

Just as water can adapt, yet remain true to its nature, we can also adapt to life and remain true to our design. When we flow with our natural design, we can move freely through life, like water adapting to its surroundings. When we go against our nature, we become something we are not.

“Be like water” doesn’t mean becoming something that doesn’t resonate with you.

When water is poured into a cup, it takes the shape of the cup, but it’s still water.

When water flows down a riverbank it creates a furrow and follows the flow, but it is still water.

Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu stated, “Water is fluid, soft and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield.”

Being adaptable is less about conforming and more about being more of ourselves.

When we are more in tune with our nature and our unique way of operating in the world, we can adapt to circumstances in a way that fits our design and opens up opportunities for us to succeed. When we approach roadblocks comfortable in our strategy, we can navigate them and make the correct decisions that work for us.

Just like water, just being itself, is fluid yet can wear away rock, so we can be ourselves and influence what seems rigid around us.

So, go, be like water!

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