Some very deep insights here from Alan Watts, which also relate nicely to yesterday’s blog, “Why do things get in a muddle?”:
Yesterday’s blog, “Why do things get in a muddle?”, told us that ‘muddles’ tend to increase over time.
We tend to see that as a problem. But Alan Watts points out that accepting these muddles can be very liberating.
“The meaning of the fact that everything is dissolving constantly, that we are all falling apart, …that everything is in decay, is your helper. That is allowing you that you don’t have to let go, because there is nothing to hold on to.”
And once you see that, “suddenly you find that you have the power, access to enormous energy… Any time you voluntarily let up control, cease to cling to yourself, you stop wasting energy in self-defence, trying to manage things, to force things to comply to your will.”
That might seem like anathema to many managers, focusing on control and micro-management. But it will strike a chord with leaders who understand that the way to get things done is to go with the past of least resistance: to work with what is, and enable it to become what it wants to be.