By Jim Freeman
"Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and 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." - Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee remains one of the most influential martial artists of all time and his iconic "Be Water" quote is drawn from centuries of Eastern philosophy and wisdom. Mr. Lee's daughter Shannon has a new book out on the teachings of her late father titled Be Water, My Friend. Ms. Lee expounds on her father's thoughts and how they can be used to aid personal growth on a daily basis. It is enthusiastically recommended. Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher who lived hundreds of years before Christ and thousands of years before Mr. Lee, stated "As the water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it, so a wise man adapts himself to circumstances." Marcus Aurelius, stoic Roman emperor and philosopher, wrote "We have the power to hold no opinion about a thing and not to let it upset our state of mind, for things have no natural power to shape our judgements." Ideas and teachings concerning balance and controlling one's mind in order to be more productive and increase one's quality of life have been in place for thousands of years. Finding a sort of mental neutral gear that allows us to better adapt and control our thoughts and emotions in order to improve performance and maximize our potential is what Mr. Lee was stressing when he advised the listener to be like water.
We discussed judgmental thinking and its negative impact on performance in the last article. Applying any sort of judgement to a performance makes things more complicated and more difficult. It distracts us and heightens anxiety. Most people don't need convincing when it comes to the harmful impact that negative thinking brings to performance. Judging athletic endeavors as though we're putting ourselves on trial for some crime will cripple performance every single time. It's easy to persuade athletes and coaches to limit the negative...the benefit is obvious. What about removing that judgement from our sporting life altogether...including some positive thinking and commentary?
We touched on the notions of a judging and commanding Self 1 and the doing, natural learning Self 2 as discussed in W. Timothy Gallwey's The Inner Game of Tennis in our previous essay. Self 1 is the critical and interfering judge reminding the athlete of every "bad" swing...every "dumb" mistake. Self 2 is the performer in a natural state of non-judgmental playing and learning. Helping the athlete learn how to limit the negative critiquing of Self 1 so Self 2 can be "in the zone" or play in an unconscious state more often is the goal. But what about positive thinking? That's got to be good right? There are probably as many books and magazine articles on the power of positive thinking as there are on the harmful effects of negative thinking... maybe more. I have no issues with a "Positive Thinking" approach except that it leaves open the possibility of falling prey to a judging mindset that feeds that Self 1 persona. Sometimes trying to think positive is one more thing to be anxious about, one more thing to beat ourselves up about when we fail to do it. I believe this is especially true when we're trying to get a handle on the self-critiquing Self 1 in the early stages of this process.
When I was an assistant high school girls basketball coach many years ago we had a player on our team who was athletic, talented and worked very hard. She was also very tough on herself mentally and I routinely suggested that she try to think positively...to be more positive in general. At one point in a practice I again reminded her of that and she whirled towards me in a state of near panic and yelled "I've tried that! It doesn't work!" I will never forget the look of frustration and desperation in her eyes. I can still see it all these years later. At the time I didn't really understand how my advice to think positive was just one more thing for her to stress about, one more thing to struggle with. I thought I was helping...looking back I'm sure that I was not.
Trevor Moawad, author of It Takes What It Takes, opined in an interview I saw him give with Michael Johnson (Olympic and World Champion sprinter) that "positive thinking creates another layer of pressure on people...it creates more anxiety than the upside value of it." As a coach I have tried to be much more positive than negative when giving feedback. However, we see how easy it can be for Self 1 to start chasing positive feedback like "nice swing" or "good pass"...and just that quickly we're back in the judgment zone again. The ego of Self 1 can turn any compliment into a morality play...if this swing is "good" then the swing that fails to elicit praise is "bad". The end result of this is a distracted athlete who is once again rating the goodness of their efforts. Moawad preaches the benefits of a neutral-thinking approach to performance...an approach that is neither negative or positive. He writes, "The actual truth is not negative or positive when you remove judgement from it. Neutral is the harmony between two extremes, negative and positive." The concept of neutral thinking is not a new one...in fact, Moawad sounds positively Zen in his approach.
The legendary sixteenth-century Japanese "sword saint", Miyamoto Musashi and his work The Five Rings (or Writings on the Five Spheres) were mentioned in the previous essay. His writings are divided into five sections or scrolls (relating to the five spheres in the title). In the section called "Water" he discusses his style of swordsmanship and its broader applications. The following quotes in this scroll can be seen to espouse a neutral approach to the samurai's sword discipline as well as his daily life.
"In the Way of Strategy, your mindset should not differ from your everyday mind. In daily life or in strategic moments, without changing it even the slightest bit, make your mind broad and straight. Without trying to rein it in tightly, or letting it go slack at all, and in such a way that it does not lean in any particular direction, center your mind exactly, and set it quietly vibrating. You should investigate exhaustively..." I remain ignorant as to the specifics of the vibrating mind concept but I had to include it...clearly I need to investigate this more thoroughly.
"In this Way (of Strategy), it is especially important for you to understand that the middle is the ultimate position. The middle is the original meaning of "position". Look at the large-scale strategy: the middle position is the general's seat. The other four positions follow the general's orders. Investigate this diligently."
Musashi was a lifelong student of Buddhism and such concepts as emptiness, mindfulness and formlessness appear throughout his teachings. Buddhism originated in India between the 5th and 4th centuries BC and spread to China before being brought to Japan. Japanese Zen emerged as a separate school in the 12th century. Musashi's idea of a "no form, no thought" strike springs from those philosophies and traditions. "When your adversary is about to strike, and you also want to strike, with your body becoming the body of the strike and your spirit becoming the spirit of striking, your hand spontaneously strikes out of nowhere, quickly and powerfully. This - called "no thought, no form" - is a strike of paramount importance. This strike is a frequently used one; learn it well, and train it diligently."
Phrases like "investigate this exhaustively" and "train this diligently" are sprinkled throughout The Five Rings. "Forge yourself with a thousand days of training, and polish yourself with ten thousand days of practice. This is something you need to investigate thoroughly." These phrasings are some of my favorites in the book, whether referring to physical training or mental/spiritual training, diligence is constantly stressed. Finding that neutral state and maintaining it requires constant practice and discipline.
A foundational aspect of staying neutral is to be in the moment and not let what has already happened or what may yet happen affect what is happening right now. A quote from Nick Saban hammers home this point, "What happened yesterday is history. What happens tomorrow is a mystery. What we do today makes a difference - the precious present moment." If we are concerned with previous failures or previous successes we will be distracted from maximizing performance in the here and now. Saban emphasizes concentrating on the process...doing one's best on this practice rep or this play and then moving on to the next repetition or play. The ability to remain focused on what's happening right now allows the player to stack maximized repetitions until at the end of that practice or game the individual has produced a series of excellent performances.
We can only think about one thing at a time. If we are thinking about relevant cues regarding the job at hand then we won't have room for the negative thoughts that hinder performance. Moawad discusses this "law of substitution" in his book, "...we function best when we're broadcasting a series of strong, neutral statements to ourselves and don't let outside noise or our own internal chatter derail those thoughts." Staying locked in on what is happening at the moment and using neutral task-based statements is the template for neutral thinking. Gallwey developed the "Bounce-Hit" tactic for tennis...he has his students say those words as they concentrate on seeing the ball bounce on their side of the net and when it contacts their racket. He found that his students performed more effortlessly and more effectively as they adopted that technique. They weren't distracted by judgmental thinking because they had something else to think about that didn't cause them to freeze up.
There is also plenty of time to go negative between plays, strokes or quarters. Staying in a neutral and productive state of mind during periods of inactivity is an important aspect of performing consistently at our best for longer stretches. Russell Wilson uses the statements "great fundamentals, great balance, be engaged" during games in his role as quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks. He happens to be a client of Mr. Moawad and wrote the foreword to his book. Occupying the mind with things that concern the current play or upcoming play such as "what defense are they in?" or "see the ball hit the bat" is a way to avoid being distracted by the surrounding environment or circumstances of the event. Golf is a sport with a tremendous amount of "down time" during play and as such there is plenty of opportunity for Self 1 to take over and wreck the process of staying in a neutral, non-judgmental zone. Gallwey states in golf "It is most often in the interval between shots that both the inner and the outer game are won or lost." Keeping the mind busy with relevant task-oriented thinking is the way to stay out of that particular hazard (pun intended).
Limiting judgmental thinking and commentary that results in increased tension and anxiety during any event whether it is a business presentation, a piano recital or a golf game is a key component of producing maximal performances. The neutral, non-judgmental state produces a calm mind that is free to focus on what truly matters at that moment. This allows the body to act in a fluid and natural manner. Bruce Lee comments that "pliability is life, rigidity is death....the less tension and effort, the faster and more powerful you will be." Water can be placid like a mountain lake, trickle like a forest stream or pound like a tropical storm. Be water, my friend.
