Defeat by Greater Things

In my last blog, I talked about the importance of finding work that you truly love.  Or indeed, of allowing it to find you.

When we are doing something we truly love, when we are in that flow, we can often get a sense of something else taking over.  We have a sense of ease, of letting go of the need to control everything.

The japanese potter,  Shoji Hamada, a huge influence on British studio pottery in the 1920s, talked about this power in his work.

"If a kiln is small, I might be able to control it completely, that is to say, my own self can become a controller, a master of the kiln. But man's own self is but a small thing after all. When I work at the large kiln, the power of my own self becomes so feeble that it cannot control it adequately.  It means that for the large kiln, the power that is beyond me is necessary.  Without the mercy for such an invisible power I cannot get good pieces.  One of the reasons I wanted to have a large kiln is because I want to be a potter, if I may, who works more in grace than in his own power.  You know nearly all the best pots were done in a huge kiln."

Might choosing an endeavour that is part of something greater, allow us all to work more in grace than in our own power?

The German poet Rilke also urges letting go in his poem, The Man Watching.

“What we choose to fight is so tiny!

What fights us is so great!

If only we would let ourselves be dominated

as things do by some immense storm,

we would become strong too, and not need names.”

Our daily battles in work can become so all consuming, that we lose track of the real prize.  Often these battles are about ‘the small stuff’, and winning them feels like firefighting.  Instead, we need to focus on what Jim Collins calls ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goals’.  We may not achieve them all, but we will have set our sights on the right things, and in stretching to them, we will grow.   Again from Rilke, 

“Winning does not tempt that man.

This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,

by constantly greater beings.”

What greater things might you chose to be defeated by?