Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
This is a classic quote from martial arts legend Bruce Lee which can be applied in a myriad ways in life.
By not setting your mind into rigid systems and solely doing things in a certain way, you allow yourself to grow, adapt, improve, and refine techniques. And that can be for anything; whether it is martial arts, business, parenting, or any aspect of your existence. So emptying your mind allows you to grow.
Water is a substance which can adapt to any situation. It can flow, move around things, and adapt to whatever occurs and whatever place it has inhibited. If we can be like water in life, that allows us to be able to adapt and thrive and flow naturally to all situations.
If you look at mixed martial arts, if you are comfortable in all situations, then it doesn't matter where the fight goes. If you are taken down, you can thrive there. If it's in the clinch, you can thrive there. If it's standing at a distance, you can thrive there. Being comfortable and being able to flow and relax in all situations, like water, that makes you all the more beautiful a human being.
All this can be applied to life. If you can flow with all the adversity and adapt to everything, your quality of life improves. It isn't necessarily easy to right off the bat, but neither is walking for the first time. Neither is driving a car, or riding a bike, or using new technology for the first time, and on and on and on. But before you know it, with some practice, it can be done unconsciously. You don't even have to think about it. And since we are over 70% water we can rejoice over the fact that we can easily and naturally follow all this beautiful wisdom which water provides us with.