We are Water: Ebb and Flow
“How do you deal with a river? You can build an expensive dam and work against it. Or you can “Dig a small channel that helps a river to go where it was going anyway. When you make it easier for the current to flow, the current will respond. A small channel quickly becomes a torrent and then the river itself.” Work with the natural ebbs and flows of rivers rather than against them. ”
The above thought from Seth Godin reminds me of a couple of local creeks that have been rehabilitated. Volunteers and conservationists dug channels and rebuilt the creek’s banks as bends that rivers naturally make, rather than forcing the rivers to follow the path that some long ago park designer desired. Why fight nature when you can work with its energy?
Apply this strategy to your life and your habits. Fighting a natural tendency is intensive and expensive (in time and energy). Instead, find the natural flows and patterns that exist in your day that can work for you rather than fighting against the flows and patterns. For me, it’s meant finding an easier way to introduce a journalling habit. Previous attempts to establish a regular writing practice never stuck. Then I thought to link it to an existing routine. My original plan was to write at my desk after doing yoga. This didn’t work: after the first day I forgot about the plan because the desk with the journal was in another room, out of sight and out of mind. It was impossible for me to insert a new routine of going to the desk after yoga because my autopilot, my natural tendency, was to leave the area completely for other tasks. It wasn’t until I applied James Clear’s advice to “make it obvious” that I had the idea to leave the open journal with a pen on a table beside my yoga mat. This small change almost instantly initiated a regular writing habit.
It’s an example of digging a small channel and letting the water flow. Adding visibility to the plan allowed me to I transition from one activity to another with little friction. Instead of forcing a whole new infrastructure into the situation, it's finding the way the system was already flowing. I worked with the system, not against it.
It makes me wonder, how else can I work with and not against my systems? Stay tuned for updates.
The river is always changing
You can't step into the same river twice, observes the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus. A river doesn't stay the same, but swells and contracts with the environmental conditions. You are also always changing. You’re not the same person today you were yesterday. You are a river.
A river fights against efforts to dictate its path but makes its own. Some spots of the river will be roaring and raging, others tinkling gently over rocks. What is your path? Resist society’s pressures to channel you; instead carve out the path that makes you feel great. Where do you naturally flow? What activities get you into the flow state? Recognize that some days will be fast-moving, roaring and raging. Other days you’ll tinkle gently along. What needs to be set up or taken down so that you can flow at your preferred pace?
A river may pool into a pond or a lake and establish a new ecosystem where birds stop during migration and where fish come to spawn. There will be times you need to be still, to rest, to be in the moment or the season. What can you offer to the people in your circles during this time?
A river picks up and carries along what gets tossed in until it finds a suitable place to throw it out on to a bank. What knowledge did you gain yesterday? What can you pick up and take with you? What do you need to leave to the side?
In coaching, I partner with you to discern your path forward. Together, we determine your direction and desired outcomes. Through a series of questions, we examine the systems you have in place and identify opportunities for small channels. As a result, you will be able to navigate the ebbs and flow of your situation with greater ease and flexibility.
In this moment, what kind of river are you?
If you want to explore the idea of being a river through fiction, I recommend reading Go As A River by Shelley Read.
If you want to listen to the idea of being a river through song, I recommend listening to “We are Water” by Shaye, which played through my head every time I sat down to work on this post.