Hard work, we’ve been told, is a key to success. So we run around like crazy, filling up our day, our week, our month, and our life with all sorts of activities.
At the end of the day, at the end of the week, and at the end of the month, we are so numb that we are exhausted. We don’t know if anything meaningful was accomplished, but we sure feel tired.
Something unexpected comes along and we get frustrated, angry, and downright mad because the unexpected blew the doors off of our carefully crafted activity schedule.
More Work ≠ More Accomplished
But does more work, more activity mean that more was accomplished?
There’s another view to this situation we call success. In the spirit of Zen it’s called letting it flow; so the choice between control and out of control is within our own mind.
Go with the Flow
When our lives are so full and the unexpected comes along, we can choose to let it take us off our path, our trajectory, or we can choose to flow around it. Imagining the unexpected as pebbles or boulders in a stream, the water will simply find another way almost without apparent stress.
Regardless of whether we choose to let the unexpected stop us, or divert us, it is under our control — and with that choice lies success.