On Energy Flows

I’ve always liked the idea of looking at any organizational structure as a flow of energy. What do I mean by that? Such a flow can take many shapes: a sports team, a company, a technology trend, a hobby club, even a whole country. What unites all of them is a set of goals and the drive to reach those goals through people and resources.

The main question is how closely our own goals line up with the goals of that structure — or, if you like, that energy flow. When they sit close together, the strength and the resources of the system start carrying us toward what we want. We move in step with the flow, and each person inside the structure, moving toward the shared markers, gets something for themselves along the way.

And yet you often meet people who, once they land inside such a flow, start to criticize it or even quietly sabotage it, setting themselves against the common direction. They hold their own goals to be more important, they see injustice at every step, they’re forever looking for someone to blame. Behind this there can be ego, a feeling of being special, or a need to prove themselves right. It’s a bit like a fish trying to swim against the current in the open ocean. What are its odds in that fight? The resistance only wears you out and rarely leads anywhere. The rational move is either to find your own current or to stop getting in the way of others reaching theirs.

As someone with a deeply critical mind, I spent a long time questioning everything myself, feeling locked in a permanent battle with windmills. But a couple of years ago I decided to dial the criticism down and focus instead on finding shared goals within the strongest flows around me. I accepted their rules of the game and started seeing the world differently. Suddenly a huge amount of energy was freed up — energy that used to go into judging and inner struggle. My anxiety dropped, and a healthy kind of self-confidence noticeably grew. I began to feel like part of something larger.

When our goals sync up with the goals of the structure we contribute to — like a little bee — it becomes our engine. We start drawing on all of its resources and possibilities. It gives you the sense that you’re in the right place and every door is open. And being inside several powerful flows at once creates a cumulative effect.

Life gets simpler: instead of fighting, we move forward with the system behind us. It might be a small group, a large organization, or even a whole country.

May we all find our energy flow and thrive in harmony with it! 😎