“Do or do not, there is no ‘try,’” spoke Yoda to a young Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back.
It’s one of the most memorable lines from one of the most cherished, original Star Wars movies. It perfectly encapsulates Yoda’s tough love attitude toward teaching Luke to discover his own inner resolve and power.
Even if you’re not attempting to master The Force from a little, green, alien-looking dude, the scenes of Luke’s training might have resonated with you. Yoda’s role in Star Wars touches the heart of anyone striving on their journey to grow and help others.
Yoda was a Jedi but his philosophies, teachings, and even his sense of humor are based on a real spiritual tradition that’s still mostly unknown in the Western world, called Daoism. In Daoism, the devotee seeks harmony through balance. This means balance in every aspect of life – career, health, community, the environment, and everything else. Daoists strive for this balance in a funny way. They embrace the paradox of life.
The Daoist spiritual tradition is thousands of years old but, in 2021, it’s more needed than ever. We’re caught in a climate of fear fostered by a blaring, fear-injecting 24/7 media. The business and career landscape is uncertain. The stress of modern living strains our family and friendships. Yet, just like Luke needed to retreat to a quiet, swampy world to train with Yoda before he could save his friends, we need to look inward for a healthier outer life. That’s where Daoism, and its embrace of paradox, comes in.
Let’s take a practical example. Say you’re worried about your career because, after the lockdowns, your employer is shifting strategies. You worry that you won’t be able to find another job. The stress starts eating away at you. How would a Daoist handle this?
Take this quote from a central text of Daoism, the Dao De Jing:
“The world’s softest steers the world’s hardest.”
At first, it seems like a flowery quote that’s meant to sound weird. How could the softest thing in the world control the hardest thing in the world? And what does that have to do with my life, with work pressures and bills to pay? The quote is a paradox, and yet, the answer is all around us. Water controls solid objects. The Grand Canyon, a chasm carved through solid rock, was formed by water gently flowing through it.
What does this have to do with your career?
Daoists learn how to live from nature and often use metaphors of nature to teach their lessons. When you’re afraid of something, you become rigid – physically, emotionally, and mentally. Think of animals in nature freezing up when they sense danger. Even if you can still physically move when you’re afraid, your creativity shuts down. You develop tunnel vision.
On the other hand, when you physically relax, you also emotionally and mentally relax. You start to see new possibilities. Your creativity returns.
Relaxation allows for creativity, but being rigid, or being hard, blocks it. When the Daoists say that the soft controls the hard, they hint at how water controls something as hard as rock.
Water gets its power from its flexibility and so can you.
You can enjoy something, like a career or a house, but if you desperately cling to it, you’ll not only suffer from fear of losing it, but you’ll be blinded to greater opportunities. For instance, I love living in Colorado and I’d hate to leave. Yet, over seven years ago, when a career opportunity opened for me on the east coast, I said, “I’d love to!” and moved across the country within a few weeks. I let go of Colorado and, paradoxically, this allowed me to move back in less than a couple of years, still doing the work I love.
Your most frustrating challenges require flexibility to overcome them. Yes, work hard at your career, but maintain enough flexibility to see other paths. Care about your performance, but not so much that you become too stressed to sleep.
That all sounds well and good, but how do you do that if you’re stressed? The Daoists have an answer for that too, and it’s been battle-tested for thousands of years. Take slow, deep breaths into your belly. Place a hand on your belly and one on your chest. When you breathe, make sure your hand on your belly rises and falls and make sure your hand on your chest remains still. This ensures you’re truly breathing deep. After just a few minutes of breathing this way, your body will start to relax and so will your mind. As a result, your creativity and flexibility will reawaken.
As Bruce Lee, another practitioner of Daoism, said, “Be formless… shapeless… like water.” When you’re that soft, you can overcome that which seems hard.
