{"id":34814,"date":"2016-12-06T12:21:15","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T20:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=34814"},"modified":"2016-12-12T09:14:19","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T17:14:19","slug":"act-without-effort-and-you-will-not-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/06\/act-without-effort-and-you-will-not-fail\/","title":{"rendered":"Act Without Effort, and You Will Not Fail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hanoi,
Hanoi, 2016 #cindyproject<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This concept is a Taoist one\u00e2\u20ac\u201d whenever you try to force<\/em> things, you will fail.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But the counter-point, whenever you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t try (wu-wei), you will succeed.<\/p>\n

Wu-wei?<\/h2>\n

One of the main concepts of the Eastern philosophy of Taoism is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wu-wei\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d action without action.<\/p>\n

For example, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153force\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a river to flow water. It just does.<\/p>\n

In your life and work, you shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153force\u00e2\u20ac\u009d yourself to do certain work you are passionate about. Rather, your passionate work should be effortless. That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean it will be easy, it just means that it will naturally flow from you.<\/p>\n

For example, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found in my photography \u00e2\u20ac\u201d my best photos shoot themselves. Whenever I see a person or a scene that I want to photograph, I find myself instinctually grabbing my camera, and overcoming any of my shyness to approach someone to photograph them. And I get into the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153zone\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I will take lots of photos of the person, without any fear, or without any doubts. This is me in a state of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153flow\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wu-wei photography.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

How I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve applied \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wu-wei\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in my life<\/h2>\n
\"Tokyo,
Tokyo, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve found the concept of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wu-wei\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to help me in other ways in life.<\/p>\n

Not sure who your real friends are, or who you really love? See who you naturally contact without effort. Those are your real friends and loved ones. You shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153force\u00e2\u20ac\u009d yourself to call or contact people you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really care about.<\/p>\n

If you really enjoy a book, you should effortlessly read it. Even if the book is difficult, challenging, and 500+ pages\u00e2\u20ac\u201d you might consume it all in one sitting.<\/p>\n

Kill distractions in order to focus<\/h2>\n
\"SF,
SF, 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I also try to write by \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wu-wei.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t force myself to write. I only write when I feel like it.<\/p>\n

The best way to enter a state of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wu-wei\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for me is eliminating distractions. For example, whenever I want to get writing done, I turn off wifi, I uninstall distracting apps from my phone (better yet, turn off my phone completely), and setup myself in a situation where I cannot be interrupted.<\/p>\n

I know this goes contrary to almost all \u00e2\u20ac\u0153productivity\u00e2\u20ac\u009d advice that we are told in the west. But this strategy might not work for you \u00e2\u20ac\u201d just experiment, try it out, and see if it works for you or not.<\/p>\n

Better yet, just experiment, and take the pieces that work for you and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work for you.<\/p>\n

Of course your taxes aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to file itself. There are some things we have to do in life that we have to force ourselves to do. But once again \u00e2\u20ac\u201d when deadlines for taxes are quickly approaching, somehow I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153force\u00e2\u20ac\u009d myself to do my taxes. My taxes (before the deadline) magically tend to finish itself.<\/p>\n

That also means to have \u00e2\u20ac\u0153strategic procrastination\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d what you generally procrastinate on isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t very important or urgent to you. Once something becomes important or urgent, you will do it (without needing to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153force\u00e2\u20ac\u009d yourself to do so).<\/p>\n

Follow nature<\/h2>\n
\"Hanoi,
Hanoi, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nature has all the rules.<\/p>\n

Nature changes seasons, causes rivers to flow, and the sun to rise and set. Nobody forces mother nature to do any of this.<\/p>\n

And everything works out just fine. The world existed before we were born, and will continue to exist after we die.<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take your life too seriously. In the grand scheme of things, we are just another grain of sand on the beach. And the earth is just another grain of sand on the beach (when compared to the other galaxies and universes out there).<\/p>\n

But the fact that you are still alive is a blessing in itself. So don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t waste your life doing things you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to do, to gain the approval of people you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care about, and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fear too much for yourself. Everything will work out fine in the end.<\/p>\n

Try to embrace more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wu-wei\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153flow\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in your life, and you will not fail.<\/p>\n

Always,
\nEric<\/p>\n

Learn more: Philosophy ><\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This concept is a Taoist one\u00e2\u20ac\u201d whenever you try to force things, you will fail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34841,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/eric-kim-photogrpahy-cindy-project-0001554.jpg?fit=2000%2C1325&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}