This post has been contributed by one of our regular readers from The Netherlands, Douwe van der Werf, who lives in Amsterdam—one of my favorite cities in the world. If you too would like to suggest an article for Slow Leadership, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact us at authors@slowleadership.org.

The power of metaphors to take a simple look at complex processes

A while back, I was responsible for a large project involving lots of people and variables. I was pretty stressed out about it I can tell you, with not a chance on taking a day off any time soon. I had been working like a madman every day of the week, for weeks and weeks on end, and it seemed that the harder I worked, the less effective the results of my work became.

At a certain point, I came to the sad conclusion I wasn’t being effective at all. All my actions seemed to just bounce more things my way. So I started thinking over and over again about all the production aspects and processes of the project. Where was I making the big mistake? Where could I hand over responsibility? Where was I just over-stressing? It all seemed equally important!

Bloodthirsty Zombie To-Do’s

The more I thought of it, the more solutions I saw. Yet with every solution came a new and even bigger problem. Then all the things that were still left undone took their turn, and started nagging my poor head, full of bloodthirsty Zombie To-Do’s.

The answer to all of my problems was just about to present itself, at a playground, in the form of a wonderful metaphor.

Stressed out, angry, and sad, I took my two year old son to the playground a few blocks away, just to have completely unproductive fun together and get some sand in our hair and ears. I decided to leave my phone at home, and also everything else that could possibly remind me of the monstrous task ahead.

It didn’t work. Not at all. Even in the sandbox, my brains where just doing what they wanted, reminding me over and over again of my demonic pit of undone-ness.

The gift of bubbles

Then in the diaper bag, I found a bottle of bubble soap. I opened the bottle, put the bubble what-you-call-it to my mouth and started blowing. The results were pretty poor. Every now and then a single bubble would come into existence, only to die alone a few moments later against my jacket.

The realization struck me like a bolt of lightning: I wasn’t producing any bubbles, because I was blowing far too hard, without even taking the direction of the wind into account.

How could I ever finish any project, if I was just putting in loads of air with lots of force, while I wasn’t even checking if it produced anything? How could I finish anything, if I couldn’t even focus on blowing bubbles properly?

A huge load fell off my shoulders immediately. The solution to all of my problems was to use less force, and try to find the natural flow required to blow the bubbles I wanted to produce. Within no time, I had finished my project in a relaxed manner. A miracle cure? To me it certainly was.

Using appropriate force

Whenever you’re up to your neck in work, try to remember the Noble Art of Blowing Bubbles. No matter how hard the wind, just try to turn your back to it and make use of its power. Try to tune your blowing to the required force—and always make sure you’re producing the bubbles you want.

And while you’re blowing bubbles, think of wave surfing too. Whenever a wave of stress is coming your way, anticipate it by getting on top of your board, on top of the wave, just enjoying it, and be a hero to yourself and anyone looking at you. The wave will disappear, just like the bubbles. It will still grab you, but the results of practice can never be taken away.

You might start enjoying that stress too

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