Learning to Flow in Life and Business

This past week several conversations with leaders and entrepreneurs have ended with me encouraging, “Be like water; flow. Water finds a way.”

For most of my life I’ve believed that my job was to get to the top of the ladder, fast, efficiently and successfully. Falsely I believed the key to getting to the summit in life and business was more about control than flow, more about force and effort than surrender and acceptance. I also believed that if something wasn’t extremely difficult, demanding and necessitated great effort – something was wrong. ( Yes I actually believed that if life did flow something was wrong!)

Okay, so I’ll admit it I have lived a fairly white knuckled, clenched fist existence. For decades I fully bought into the idea if I didn’t control, struggle and work my ass off nothing was ever going to come of my life or my business. Boy was I deluded.

Clenched fist’s. Control. Many people falsely believe as I did, that to succeed, be safe and secure they need to control the people and situations around them. Of course this leads to a life of pain, inflexibility and an existence that is at war with pretty much everything.

Clenched fists are the opposite of flowing water. Where water finds a peaceful way, the clenched fist, control based life finds a war to fight, a moment to resist.

When we live as water. We embrace what is. We’re open to feelings, circumstances and reality; good and bad. This openness embraces the moment. And that my friend, is how to succeed in life; one moment at a time. A quality life, business, the love of your life, the dream you’re dreaming; is experienced moment by moment.

Don’t get me wrong, I can become clenched fisted in an nano second.

This surrendered, embracing, peaceful life is NOT natural to me. But I’m convinced a life of trying to control, force and clenched fists is nothing more than evidence of faulty life beliefs, socialization and fear based being.

Daily, I turn my clenched fists into palms turned heavenward. Yes, sometimes I must pry them open!

I remind myself, I’m not God. I embrace my job, to show up in the moment. Yes, that’s it. My job is to show up. My job is to be me and to think and do congruently with who I am and what I believe is meaningful; moment, by moment.

I want to be more like water and less like ice.

To make love not war with the present.

To flow and not control.

To open my clenched fists.

And then just about when I get into complete flow, surrendered and peaceful with the moment I find myself flipping, the MARS out after discovering the car door was open all night. In a psycho moment I forget my new way of being and get all white knuckled, my veins pop out and I grip the steering wheel of life with all my might. Slowly but surely I recognize the errors of my way, that I’ve gone back to an old, familiar pattern; one that no longer represents who I am or who I want to be.

I want to be like water. I want to be the woman that shows up and finds her way, like water; peacefully. And who inspires others to flow, flow like water…

Pam Hoelzle

425 218 5864

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