Being Yourself
Last week, I had watched the latest Kung Fu Panda short film on Netflix and this blog post is my key learning from this short film. If you’ve haven’t watched the KungFu Panda movies, highly recommend them - besides a good laugh, I always end up learning one thing or the other! Here’s the link to the short film on Netflix.
There is a scene in this short film where Master Shifu is teaching KungFu to the Tigress and this how the scene goes -
Shifu - Straighten up!
Tigress - (In Admiration of Master Shifu) Yes, Master Shifu.
Shifu - Wider! Lower stance. Hold Your ground. Steady. Strong. Chin up! This is the way of Kung Fu.
Tigress - (Get’s distracted, flies up in the air, does some super awesome KungFu and comes back!)
Shifu - (Gets angry) - That’s not proper form. This is not control! This is not KungFu! 100 Laps!
Shifu goes back to rest and then Master Oogway (Shifu’s master) delivers the punch line -
An acorn can only become the mighty oak, not a cherry tree. You must let her grow into what she’ll be!
Everytime we admire a quality in someone else, we immediately try to change ourselves to some version of the other person. More often than not the change is shortlived and we end up losing our originality. True and lasting change comes when we imbibe the quality or change by adding our own signature/style to it.
Kaushik Rangadurai
Code. Learn. Explore