Let It Flow - You're Natural Movements Allow for Genuine Action
"The centipede was happy quite,
until the toad in fun
Said "Pray tell which leg goes after which ?"
And worked her mind to such a pitch
She lay distracted in the ditch
Considering how to run."
Next time your walking down the sidewalk, think deeply about the motion of your walk. You'll quickly find yourself carrying out this small task with the utmost of awkwardness. You won't be able to remember how you normally walk. This isn't exclusive to walking either. Many activities fail to go our way when we think too deeply and try to override our reflex, our natural flow.
Many times the greatest sports stars play best when they are in "the zone." Their actions are thoughtless, they act with extreme efficiency without any hesitation. In many cases, an artist's best work will come about when they just put their pencil to the paper and start drawing. Even writer's block occurs when they are desperately searching for an idea, trying to force something out.
So I could stop here and leave with the advice to just let it flow and stop thinking about your actions and just act, but that would be leaving out alot of information. There is another key piece to the idea, one that is not intuitive.
When you first began to learn to walk as a youngin' you most likely focused on it, thought on it deeply. When the sports star first started out playing, they got better by focusing on their technique, execution, conditioning, etc. When the artist decided he wanted to get better, he went to art school and focused on learning different techniques, styles, etc. and last but not least the writer has to explore ideas through extreme contemplation before they can flow.
The accumulation of knowledge, whether physical or mental, deals with deep thought and extreme contemplation. All areas of ideas must be explored to a great degree and how to best apply these ideas as well. It is the application itself though, that at its best, requires no thought at all. Thought is the greatest tool of acquiring knowledge, but it only hinders a person when actively trying to apply it.
This leaves room for the greatest endeavor of all, improvement or progress. We must work to accumulate knowledge and then use this knowledge in practice enough so that it becomes habit, it becomes action without thought, yet with a firm foundation in knowledge. The accumulation must never stop, we must always be building on this foundation to fulfill our greatest potential.
until the toad in fun
Said "Pray tell which leg goes after which ?"
And worked her mind to such a pitch
She lay distracted in the ditch
Considering how to run."
Next time your walking down the sidewalk, think deeply about the motion of your walk. You'll quickly find yourself carrying out this small task with the utmost of awkwardness. You won't be able to remember how you normally walk. This isn't exclusive to walking either. Many activities fail to go our way when we think too deeply and try to override our reflex, our natural flow.
Many times the greatest sports stars play best when they are in "the zone." Their actions are thoughtless, they act with extreme efficiency without any hesitation. In many cases, an artist's best work will come about when they just put their pencil to the paper and start drawing. Even writer's block occurs when they are desperately searching for an idea, trying to force something out.
So I could stop here and leave with the advice to just let it flow and stop thinking about your actions and just act, but that would be leaving out alot of information. There is another key piece to the idea, one that is not intuitive.
When you first began to learn to walk as a youngin' you most likely focused on it, thought on it deeply. When the sports star first started out playing, they got better by focusing on their technique, execution, conditioning, etc. When the artist decided he wanted to get better, he went to art school and focused on learning different techniques, styles, etc. and last but not least the writer has to explore ideas through extreme contemplation before they can flow.
The accumulation of knowledge, whether physical or mental, deals with deep thought and extreme contemplation. All areas of ideas must be explored to a great degree and how to best apply these ideas as well. It is the application itself though, that at its best, requires no thought at all. Thought is the greatest tool of acquiring knowledge, but it only hinders a person when actively trying to apply it.
This leaves room for the greatest endeavor of all, improvement or progress. We must work to accumulate knowledge and then use this knowledge in practice enough so that it becomes habit, it becomes action without thought, yet with a firm foundation in knowledge. The accumulation must never stop, we must always be building on this foundation to fulfill our greatest potential.
Comments