To climb or to flow? That’s a good question →
I’ve been thinking a lot about mountains and rivers. No, I’m not planning to go camping any soon, but it would still be a great idea. What I was really thinking about is the fundamental difference between two approaches to life.
Photo credits: Stuck In Customs
The first approach has to do with investing hard, constant, willful effort in order to succeed. Think about climbing a tall mountain. The trek is hard and not everyone can make it. Also, the mountain’s peak is quite narrow, which means that it can only hold only a few people at a time. You can recognize “climbers” when they say that “You can be anything you want to be, if you just try hard enough”.
The second approach has to do with flow. Michaly Csikszentmihalyi defines flow in a pretty formal way but I’d like to invite you think about flow as in “flowing in a river”. Flowing requires a lot of attention. The stream can be pretty fast and you need to pay attention to unexpected obstacles such as rocks and eddies. Rivers flow into oceans which are quite different than mountain peaks because they can hold a lot of people in the same time. You can recognize people that practice flow when they say that “You cannot be anything you want to be - but you can be a lot more of who you already are”.
But really, these are just two metaphors and there are no rules. Living our lives the way we want is a must . The point that I’m trying to make here has to do with leverage. Think of Archimedes words: “Give me a place to stand and I will move the Earth”. Think of your “navigation” skills, your “climbing” skills, your ability to pay attention, your capability to make a lot of effort, etc. What’s the best trait that you can leverage on?
