Be like water

November 18, 2025

Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

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

I heard this quote from Bruce Lee over a decade ago, and I think about it all the time. Most recently last week, when following the stream of rainwater flowing down the streets with my kids. They stomped their boots, and said they were trying to stop the water from reaching the storm drains. I told them, water will find a way. I was tempted to wax philosophical with them, but held my tongue. Better to show than tell.

I think of myself as being like water. I find a way. One of my favorite phrases is “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” I believe that 100%. It’s all within reach. The only question is how badly do you want it. Most people don’t want it badly enough. They’re not willing to sacrifice, to toil, to put in the hours and blood and sweat that is required for anything meaningful.

Life is generally more interesting and rewarding when you take the form of water, and find your way around anything and everything that seemingly stands between you and your goal. And of course, when you reach the goal, the stream doesn’t stop. It becomes the ocean. What it was meant to be.