Latest / The Strategize, Adapt, and Overcome Podcast by Brad Young / Water Wins: How to Bend Without Breaking When Everything Changes

Transcript

Water Wins: How to Bend Without Breaking When Everything Changes · The Strategize, Adapt, and Overcome Podcast by Brad Young

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Good morning, and welcome back to strategize, adapt, and overcome.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: I am brad young, and I am glad you are
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: here with me today because this is the one that
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: ties it all together. If you have been walking through
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: this series with me, we have covered some serious ground.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: In the first episode we talked about the patient warrior
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and why timing beats speed every single time. We learn
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to wait with purpose, prepare with discipline, and strike only
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: when the moment is truly ours. Then in the second episode,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: we turned inward and face the toughest opponent any of
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: us will ever meet. The enemy inside our own head,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the fear, the ego, the emotional triggers that hijack our
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: best thinking right when the stakes are highest. So today
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: we bring it home. We have learned when to move,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: We have learned how to master the mind that decides,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: and now we learn what happens when the ground shifts
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: under our feet anyway, Because it will, I promise you
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: it will. Today we are talking about a day aptibility,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: and there is no better teacher for this than Sun Sue,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: who gave us one of the most beautiful ideas in
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: all of strategy. He said that the wise warrior flows
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: like water. Water shapes itself to any obstacle it meets,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: yet it never ever loses its way to the sea.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Sit with that for a moment. Water bends around the rock,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: water fills the crack, water finds the low path when
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: the high path is blocked. It changes its shape a
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: thousand times on the journey, but it never once forgets
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: where it is going. That is what I want to
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: give you today, So let us get into it. Here's
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the first thing I need you to understand. Change is
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: not the enemy. I know it feels like the enemy.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Sometimes the market shifts, the job disappears, the relationship ends.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: The plan you built for two years falls apart in
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: an afternoon, and in that moment, change feels like a
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: wrecking ball swinging straight at everything you have built. But
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: change is not the wrecking ball. Rigidity is. Let me
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: say that again, because it is the whole message today.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Change does not break you. Being rigid when change arrives
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: is what breaks you. Think about a tree in a storm.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: The great oak stands tall and stiff and proud. It
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: refuses to move, And when the strongest wind comes, that
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: mighty oak snaps right in half. But the willow beside
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: it bends, It bows low to the ground, It lets
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: the wind pass through, and when the storm is over,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: the willow is still standing, not because it was stronger
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: because it was more willing to bend. Which one are
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: you right now? In your career, in your business, in
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: your life. Are you the oak so proud of your
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: position that you would rather break than bend? Or are
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: you the willow flexible enough to survive the storm and
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: rise again when it passes it? Now, let me be
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: very clear, because this is where people get adaptability completely wrong.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Bending is not the same as breaking, and adapting is
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: not the same as quitting. There is a different It's
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: between changing your shape and losing your soul. Water changes
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: its shape constantly, but it never changes what it is.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: It never stops being water. It never abandons the sea.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: And that is the balance I want you to hold
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: on to today. You can change your methods without changing
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: your mission. You can change your path without changing your purpose.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: You can bend your approach one hundred times and still
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: be moving toward the exact same destination. The person who
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: cannot adapt at all breaks in the storm, but the
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: person who adapts without an anchor just drifts blown wherever
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the wind decides, neither one of those people arrives. The
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: one who wins is the one who bends like water
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: and stays locked onto the sea. Let me tell you
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: a story to show you what I mean. I knew
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: a business owner years ago, and I'm going to change
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: some details to protect him. But this happened. Well, he
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: built a company around one product, one and for a while,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: because that product was it paid his mortgage, it paid
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: his people, It built him a life he was proud of.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Then the world changed, new technology came along, and almost overnight,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: the thing that made him successful started making him obsolete.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Now here's where the story splits, And here's where you
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: get to watch a man choose to be the willow
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: instead of the oak. His first instinct, and he told
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: me this himself, was to dig in to defend the
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: old product, to insist that the market was wrong and
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: he was right, and that if he just pushed harder,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: everyone would come back around. That is the oak. That
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: is ego and fear, standing stiff against a storm they
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: cannot win. But he caught himself. He remembered that his
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: mission was never the product. His mission was to serve
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: his customers. And provide for his family. The product was
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: just the shape the water happened to be taking at
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: the time, so he let it go. He bent, He
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: took everything he knew about serving those customers and poured
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: it into something new, something the changing world actually needed.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: And within a few years he was bigger and stronger
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: than he ever was before. And he did not lose
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: his way to the sea. He just found a new
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: river to get there. That is the whole thing. Now,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: let me contrast that with someone who did the opposite,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: because you learn just as much from the oak as
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: you do from the willow. I have watched people cling
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: to a job, title, a strategy, a way of doing
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: things long after the world moved on, and they did
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: not cling because they were foolish. They clung because letting
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: go felt like admitting defeat. Their ego was wrapped so
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: tightly around the old way that bending felt like breaking,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: so they held on, stiff and proud in the storm
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: snapped them clean in half. Here's the hard truth I
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: learned from watching both of those roads. The thing you
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: refuse to let go of is often the exact thing
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: dragging you under water. Never grips, water releases and it flows,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: and by flowing, it arrives at places the rigid rock
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: will never see. This is where the Stoics have so
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: much to teach us, because they understood adaptability at the
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: deepest possible level. The Stoics taught that we do not
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: control what happens to us. We only control how we respond,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and that one idea is the foundation of everything we
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: are talking about today. You did not choose the storm.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: You do not get a vote on whether the market shifts,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: or the plan falls apart, or the ground moves under
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: your feet. That was never yours to control. But how
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: you respond, whether you bend or break, whether you cling
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: or flow, that is entirely one hundred percent yours. The
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Stoic philosopher Epictetis said that it is not events that
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: disturb us, but our judgments about events. Read that again.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: It is not the change itself that hurts you. It
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: is the story you tell yourself about the change. When
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: you decide that change is a disaster, you become the oak,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: stiff and terrified, waiting to snap. But when you decide
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: that change is simply the next obstacle for the water
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: to flow around, you become the willow. Same storm, completely
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: different outcome, and the only thing that changed was what
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: happened between your ears. Like the Stoics also gave us
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: a practice I want you to carry for the rest
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: of your life. They called it the art of acceptance.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Not passive acceptance where you give up and let the
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: world roll over you, active acceptance, where you look reality
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: dead in the eye. You accept exactly what is true
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: right now, and then you ask the only question that matters,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: given that this is real, what is my best move?
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: And the question is the difference between drowning and swimming.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: The person who fights reality drowns, exhausting themselves against a
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: current they cannot beat. The person who accepts reality and
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: then adapts to it swims, using that very same current
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: to carry them somewhere better. So how do you actually
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: do this? How do you become like water when everything
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: you built is falling apart around you? Let me give
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: you something practical, because I never want to just fill
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: your head with beautiful ideas and send you out with
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: nothing to hold. And here's the framework. When change hits you,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: and it will, I want you to run three moves
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: in this order. The first move is the name you
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: see before you change. A single thing about your approach.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Get crystal clear on what you are actually trying to reach,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: not the method, the mission. Ask yourself, what is the
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: real goal underneath all of this? For my friend, it
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: was never the product. It was serving people and providing
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: for his family. When you know your sea, you can
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: change every river without ever getting lost, because no matter
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: which way you turn, you always know which direction is home.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: The second move is to release the rock. Look honestly
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: at what you are gripping. What method, what title, what
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: old way of doing things? Are you holding on to
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: so tightly that it is keeping you from flowing? And
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: here's a hard part. You have to ask whether you
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: are holding on to it because it still serves your
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: mission or because letting go would bruise your ego. Be
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: brutally honest. The rock you refuse to release is almost
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: always the thing pulling you under. The third move is
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: to find the low path. Water does not fight the mountain.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: It does not throw itself against the stone over and over,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: hoping the stone gives up. Water finds the crack, it
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: finds the opening. It takes the path that is actually available,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: instead of raging against the path that is closed. So
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: when you hit the obstacle, stop pushing on the wall
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: and start looking for the opening. Ask yourself, given exactly
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: what is real right now? What path is actually open
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: to me? Then take it and trust that the sea
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: is still there waiting. Name your sea, release the rock,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: find the low path. That is how you bend without breaking.
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  Speaker 1: Now I want to say something that I think a
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: lot of people miss because they hear all this talk
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: about flexibility and they think it means being soft. It
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: does not. Do not, ever, confuse adaptability with weakness. Water
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: is the softest thing there is. You can put your
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: hand right through it. And yet water carves canyons out
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: of solid rock. Water sinks steel ships. Given enough time,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: water winds against anything on this earth. Why Because water
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: is relentless. It never stops moving toward the sea. It
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: bends and flows and yields in the moment, but over
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: time it is the most powerful and persistent force in nature.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: That is the kind of strength I want for you.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Not the brittle strength of the yolk that looks mighty
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: right up until it snaps, the patient, flowing, unstoppable strength
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: of water that outlasts every obstacle in its way. The
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: person who can adapt is not the weak one in
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the room. The person who can adapt is the most
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: dangerous one in the room, because you cannot break someone
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: who bends, and you cannot stop someone who always finds
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: another way through. Let me bring is back to your
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: real life for a moment, because I know some of
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: you are standing in the middle of a storm right now.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Maybe the career you planned is not the career in
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: front of you. Maybe the business is not going the
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: way you dreamed. Maybe something you counted on completely fell apart,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: and you are sitting there wondering how you are supposed
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: to move forward. Hear me on this. You are not
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: being asked to pretend the storm is not real. You
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: are being asked to stop being the oak. You are
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: being asked to remember your sea, release the rock you
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: are gripping, and find the low path that is open
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: to you right now. The destination has not moved, You
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: just need a new river to reach it. And I
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: promise you there is always another river. Water always finds
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: a way, and so can you. So let me give
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: you your challenge for this week, because this whole series
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: has been about doing, not just knowing. Here's what I
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: want you to do. Pick one area of your life
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: where changes hit you and where you have been fighting it,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: where you have been the stiff oak instead of the
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: flowing willow. Just one area, and this week I want
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: you to run the three moves on it. First, write
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: down your sea. What is the real goal underneath that situation,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: stripped of any particular method. Second, name your rock, what
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: exactly are you gripping and be honest about whether you
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: are holding it for your mission or for your ego.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: And third, find one low path, one open route you
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: have been ignoring because you are too busy raging at
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: the closed one. Just one, and this week, take a
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: single step down that open path. That is it. Name
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: your sea, release your rock, take one step down the
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: low path. Do that and you will feel something shift.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: You will feel yourself stop breaking and start flowing. And
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: once you feel that, you will never want to be
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: the oak again. Let me leave you with this before
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: we close. We started this journey learning when to move.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: We learned how to master the mind that decides, and
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: today we learned how to bend without breaking when the
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: world changes anyway. And here's the beautiful thing. These three
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: ideas are not separate. They are one. The patient warrior
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: who knows is timing, who has mastered the enemy in
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: his own head, who flows like water toward the sea,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: that person becomes almost impossible to stop. Not because life
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: stops throwing storms at them, because they have learned to
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: move with the storm instead of against it. The world
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: is always going to change. It changed on everyone who
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: came before you, and it will change on everyone who
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: comes after. That is not a curse. That is simply
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: the nature of the river. The only question that matters
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: is whether you will stand stiff and proud and snap
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: or bend low, flow around the rock, and keep moving
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: toward the sea that is calling you home. Be like water,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: my friend, bend without breaking, change without losing your way,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: and keep flowing patiently and relentlessly until you arrive exactly
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: where you were always meant to be. Thank you so
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: much for spending this time with me today, and thank
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: you for walking through this entire series with me. If
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: it gave you something real, do me a favor and
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: share it with someone who is standing in a storm
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: right now, someone who needs to to hear that bending
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: is not breaking and that the water always wins in
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: the end. And make sure you follow the show because
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: we are just getting started. In the coming episodes, we
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: are going to keep pulling ancient wisdom into the modern fight.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to bring you more strategies, more stories,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: and more practical tools to sharpen your edge in business,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: in leadership, and in life. Until then, name your C,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: release your rock, and keep moving forward.