In Taoism there is a principle called wu wei. It is defined as effortless action, or as Alan Watts likes to describe it, non forcing.
Most of my life I've had a feeling that things would work out. If it took the force of my will, by god, things were going to work out. Most of the time it was to my benefit.
There came a day, and it was bound to happen, when things didn't work out. Regardless of what I tried.
Forcing my idea of bikes into a store, and a customer base, that wasn't ready was surely one of the deciding factors in the ultimate failure of that business.
I picked myself up and started anew, but this time in a much smaller space. I stopped worrying about things working out I stopped trying to force it, and things improved. Dramatically.
Without knowing it, I was practicing wu wei.
Ultimately the way things turned out has been a very good thing for me. However there is still the lingering question of how events would have transpired had I gained even a cursory understanding of this principle sooner.
This philosophy is old, and was originally written in a language not always easy to translate. This makes it sometimes challenging to understand. The work of Alan Watts has been a revelation to me. If you're the least bit interested, check out What is Tao. It's available at most libraries, and on Amazon.
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