Learning to Bow

Entering the space of transformation

Learning to Bow – Entering the Space of Transformation

The terrifying perspective of being on a bridge to a new world that you cannot see but must be willing to be transformed by in order to survive. This is Learning to Bow. We must bow in order to Enter the Space of Transformation. This is the big distinction between coming from Knowing and coming from Not Knowing.   In talking with audiences about Dell and CSC two companies that rode the wave in unprecedented ways in the 90s – it is common to think that you are the wave and that you will dominate the next wave – that you will originate or reshape the next wave in your own image. Better to recognize that the wave that is approaching requires something you don’t have. Now you are no longer in resistance and you are sensing, listening like Laird Hamlton for what needs to change or transform in your ways of Being

Willingness to be transformed

Coaches and athletes talk of taking their game to the next level but the next level is truly something beyond who you are today. And therefore something not that easy for “you” to attain In fact you wont attain it as you will be transformed into something new. Transformation thus begins with what we relinquishing or what we call learning to bow – a willingness to be Transformed. To come from Not Knowing. Again, Laird Hamilton offers the quintessential example.

In age of acceleration Unlearning is a more important skill than Learning So a master skill appears to be Letting Go. This sounds easy but it is in fact the trickiest thing you will ever do – this is what Wu-Wei or Effortless Effort is pointing to.  One of the reasons we don’t want to let go of the rung that we are on is that we don’t want to fall so we cant let go of the next rung until we can see it. This is where having a framework or a map can be invaluable. We are clear that the map is not the territory and that there is no model as complex as the system itself and we tremendous value in maps.

Switching polarities

We need to be able to “switch Polarities” and not have a fixed view of Up or Down or Right or Wrong. This can be tricky to see. Let me give you an example – you might say you would never kill anyone and then I might ask “not even to protect your child from a murderer?” So you would have to concede Killing is not always wrong. That is all. That is learning to Bow. Accept that this is the case. Accept that you have already lost the point (this is not the same as conceding killing is always right)