Don’t Be the Frog. Don’t Be the Bridge. Don’t Cling to the Mask. Be the Surfer. 🌊🔥 - V 0.2


We are creatures of habit. Much of life is lived in autopilot mode — routines designed for survival, efficiency, and sometimes plain laziness. That works… until the messiness of life arrives: a sudden layoff after years of loyalty, the transition of retirement, or the slow erosion of relevance.

Three metaphors illuminate the danger of holding on too tightly:


🐸 The Frog → not noticing gradual change.
🌉 The Bridge → overbuilding for yesterday’s problem.
🎭 The Mask → clinging to an identity that no longer serves us.

But as Rik Vera reminds us in Go With the Flow: speed alone isn’t the answer. True mastery is learning from the surfer — sensing the wave, knowing when to accelerate and when to pause, moving with change rather than against it.

The real risk isn’t failure.
It’s irrelevance.

This calls for a deeper mindset shift: from Industrial Age metaphors (machines, control, predictability) toward a Living World vocabulary of flow, rhythm, coherence, and emergence. Even our mental models are no longer static, but evolving — shaped by feedback, reflection, and flow.


That’s why I frame these as Thought Sparks — not prescriptions, but invitations for reflection.

✨ Don’t be the frog. Don’t be the bridge. Don’t cling to the mask. Be the surfer. Learn to live in the flow.

(With gratitude to Usman Sheikh for The Masks We Can’t Remove and Rik Vera for Go With the Flow.)


📌 Thought Spark | Inviting reflection, not prescribing answers
— Mani Vannan

Spark → Resonance → Coherence → Flow 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life is Too Short

Image
LIFE IS TOO SHORT… LIVE IT FULLY We often say — “Life’s too short.” But we rarely pause to ask: Too short for what? This isn’t just a casual phrase. It’s a call to live deeply, intentionally, and fully. Here’s what it means to me: Life is too short to hold grudges. Forgive and let go. Life is too short to chase validation. Be authentic, not popular. Life is too short to be in a job you hate. Find work that gives you purpose and joy. Life is too short to postpone dreams. Take the trip. Write the book. Start the business. Life is too short to eat bad food. Savor every meal like it's a celebration. Life is too short for superficial relationships. Nurture deep, meaningful connections. Life is too short to always play safe. Embrace uncertainty and take calculated risks. Life is too short to be busy all the time. Make space for reflection, stillness, and solitude. Life is too short to not say "I love you". Speak your heart while there’s still time. Life is too short...
Read more

Don’t Be the Frog. Don’t Be the Bridge. Don’t Cling to the Mask.

Image
Don’t Be the Frog. Don’t Be the Bridge. Don’t Cling to the Mask. A Thought Spark on Change, Identity, and Flow We are creatures of habit. We live much of life in autopilot mode — routines designed for survival, efficiency, and sometimes plain laziness. But the messiness of life inevitably arrives: being let go after years of loyalty, the transition of retirement, or the slow erosion of relevance. Three stories illustrate the risks of clinging too tightly to the past: 🐸 The Frog in Slowly Heated Water We don’t notice gradual change. We sit comfortably while the environment shifts around us — until it’s almost too late. 🌉 The Bridge Over the Empty River We sometimes “solve” problems with permanence. A river that caused floods for decades is finally conquered by an over-engineered bridge… only for the river to change course, leaving the bridge irrelevant. 🎭 The Masks We Can’t Remove At the deepest level, we resist change because it threatens our identity. As Usman Sheikh w...
Read more

Tennis as a Masterclass in Adaptive Personal Resilience

Image
🎾 Tennis as a Masterclass in Adaptive Personal Resilience 1. Solo Accountability In singles tennis, there's no coach whispering in your ear mid-match, no teammate to offload pressure. You're alone on the court—responsible for every point, every miss, every adjustment. This radical ownership forces the development of inner resilience. 2. Dynamic Adaptability Elite players must adapt not only to their opponent's strategy, but also to: Changing weather (wind, sun, heat, etc.) Court surface (clay, grass, hard) Injury or fatigue mid-match Momentum swings Chris Evert emphasized this perfectly in her response to Sabalenka's complaints after the 2025 French Open: “You have to adjust. It’s the same on both sides... If you are number one in the world or number two in the world, you should know how to play on windy days by now.” 3. Mental Fortitude Under Pressure From 40–0 to deuce, from winning sets to choking leads—tennis constantly tests one's mental toughness....
Read more