Soft Yet Unstoppable

“Be Like Water.”

You may have seen these words attributed to Bruce Lee on a t-shirt or bumper sticker. Here is the full quote: "Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, 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."

I keep going back to these words by Bruce Lee lately. They've become my lifeline during these hurricanes I've been weathering. I keep turning this paradox over in my mind: how can something so yielding be so powerful? And why did it take me so long to understand this?

Strength in Surrender

I used to think strength meant standing firm. Pushing back. Not giving an inch. Then this month happened.

Things went sideways. My carefully constructed plans collapsed. People started needing things I hadn't prepared for. Everything that worked before suddenly didn't.

I defaulted to my usual approach: double down, push harder, force solutions. And I hit wall after wall after wall.

One morning after a particularly tough call, I went for a walk. it had rained earlier in the morning and there was water running down a pathway. The water simply moved around every obstacle: sticks and rocks and pine cones, finding new paths without apparent effort.

Have I've been thinking about strength all wrong?

I’m a Control Freak

I hate admitting this, but I'm a control freak. Always have been. I build systems. I create plans. I anticipate problems. Control is my security blanket.

So when I first considered "being like water," it felt like giving up. Like i’m admitting defeat. It felt like weakness.

But watching that stream of water find perfect, effortless path made me wonder: What if surrender isn't weakness? What if it's actually the most efficient path forward?

That first attempt at letting go was physically uncomfortable. My jaw was clenched. My shoulders were tight. My mind kept racing to worst-case scenarios. But I forced myself to try.

Instead of putting up a wall and jumping to my worst case scenario, I asked: "If this happens and it’s my new reality, what paths are now available?"

The relief was immediate. And surprisingly, so were the results.

Resilience? Or Rigidity.

The hardest part of this hasn't been the external challenges. It's been overcoming the default state in my own thinking that I've built up over decades.

I've always prided myself on being "solid."

Dependable.

Unmovable.

Resilient.

But what if that unmove-ability was actually just rigidity? What if my resilient nature was actually just resistance to better possibilities?

Just asking these questions felt like cracking open windows in a stuffy room. Something shifted.

The Daily Struggle

Some days I feel like I'm getting this. The "water mindset" comes naturally. I adapt easily, find creative solutions, and stay calm in chaos.

Other days? I'm right back to pushing, forcing, resisting. My jaw clenches. My frustration builds. I catch myself trying to control every variable again.

This isn't a one-and-done transformation. It's a practice. Every morning I remind myself: Be like water today.

When I feel that tension rising, I have been trying to visualize water flowing around obstacles. I even printed out a picture next to my desk to remind me.

It sounds silly, but these small reminders are rewiring me.

Drip-Drip-Drip

The Grand Canyon wasn't carved in a day. It was shaped by water's gentle, relentless presence over millions of years. Drop by drop. Day by day.

I'm learning to trust this quieter kind of power in my own life. The small daily adaptations. These tiny course corrections. The subtle acts that don't seem significant in the moment but transform everything over time.

This morning I looked back at where I was a month ago compared to today. No single day felt revolutionary. But the cumulative effect of daily adaptations has completely changed my trajectory.

There's something deeply reassuring about this. I don't need dramatic breakthroughs or instant transformations. I just need to keep flowing, keep adapting, keep moving forward consistently.

The Gift I Didn't Know I Needed

This "be like water" mindset isn't just helping me navigate business challenges—it's transforming how I approach everything.

Arguments with umpires. (mind you they can never hear me through the TV screen). Traffic jams. Technology failures. Even that inefficient checkout line at the local bakery that used to make me irrationally angry. In each moment of resistance, I now ask: How can I flow through this rather than fight it?

I'm still learning. Still practicing. Still catching myself in old patterns. But day by day, I'm learning to be water. And I've never felt more confident to face whatever comes my way.