One Apple A Day #571 - let yourself flow
I love to learn new things; to discover new ideas and connections. I always thought that the only way to grow and expand my potential was through addiction. Adding more knowledge, more skills, more tools, and so on. The idea is that the more you know, the more and better you can do. But it doesn't work like that, not for me at least. Knowing what to do doesn't automatically imply doing what I know.
More and more, I'm becoming aware that the key to unlocking my true potential is subtraction. We are like rivers, flowing is our nature. What we should do is to remove all obstacles, or find ways around them, so we can flow to the sea. Some obstacles are part of the nature of things, like rocks. Others are made, by us or by others, like dams. The more we can clean the way, the more our stream will flow freely.
Sometimes I put so much effort to make my energy flow that I get in its way. The typical sign is a sense of frustration and feeling stuck. When I become aware of it, and I let go, then my energy starts flowing again.
Tim Gallwey summaries it perfectly in his famous formula: Performance = Potential - Interference.
Let your potential flow.