Bruce Lee explains his philosophy that all knowledge leads to self-knowledge and true martial arts is honest self-expression. He illustrates adaptability with the "be water" metaphor: water takes the shape of any container yet can flow or crash. Lee emphasizes relentless training so action follows intention without hesitation, and contrasts traditional Chinese boxing with Western boxing by using the whole body as a weapon.
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Hello, Believe Nation. I started the Mentor Me series with the goal to try to learn from people who've done a lot more than us, and by hanging around them a little bit longer, hopefully their mindset, ambitions, dreams, way of thinking seeps into us a little bit more to help us become the best version of ourselves. So today we're gonna learn from Bruce Lee on staying motivated. Mentor me, Bruce. And as always, if Bruce says something that really resonates with you, please leave it in the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired as well. Enjoy!
As a human being, how can I express myself totally and completely?
All type of knowledge ultimately means self-knowledge. Listen, you see, really, to me, okay, to me, ultimately martial art means honestly expressing yourself.
Oftentimes people come up and say, "Hey Bruce, are you really that good?" I said, "Well, if I tell you I'm good, probably you will say I'm boasting. But if I tell you I'm no good, you know I'm lying." But, alright, going back to being truthful with you, let's just put it this way. I have no fear of opponent in front of me. But I'm very self-sufficient. They do not bother me. And that should I fight, should I do anything, I have made up my mind and that's it, baby. You better sue me before.
It's very difficult to do. I mean, it is easy for me to put on a show and be cocky and be flooded with a cocky feeling and then feel like pretty cool and all that. Or I can make all kinds of phony things, you see what I mean, blinded by it. Or I can show you some really fancy movement. But to express oneself honestly, not lying to oneself, and to express myself honestly, that, my friend, is very hard to do. And you have to train, you have to keep your reflexes so that when you want it, it's there. When you want to move, you're moving. And when you move, you are determined to move, not taking one inch, not anything less than that. If I want to punch, I'm gonna do it, man, and I'm gonna do it, you see. So I mean, so that is type of thing you have to train yourself into it to become one. I said, empty your mind, be formless, shapeless like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. It's not difficult to learn and speak the word. The hard thing, the difficult thing, it's behind what is the meaning, what brought on the expression and feelings behind those words. The successful ingredient in it was because I was being Bruce Lee.
Yourself.
Myself, right.
You talk about Chinese boxing. How does it differ from, say, our kind of boxing?
Well, first we use the feet, and then we use the elbow, and use the thumb too. You name it, man, we use it all. You have to, you see, because I mean, that is the expression of the human body. I mean, everything. I mean, you know, not just a hand. And when you're talking about combat, well, I mean, if it If it is a sport, now you're talking about something else. You have regulations, you have rules. But when you're talking about fighting as it is, with no rules— Moral. Real fighting. Well, then, baby, you better train every part of your body. And when you do punch— now I'm leaning forward a little bit, hoping not to hurt any camera angle— I mean, you gotta put the whole hip into it and snap it and get all your energy in there. And make this into a weapon.
You are not ready.
I know.
Like everyone else, you want to learn the way to win, but never to accept the way to lose. To accept defeat, to learn to die, is to be liberated from it. So when tomorrow comes, you must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying.
Do you still think of yourself as Chinese, or do you ever think of yourself as North American?
You know what I want to think of myself? As a human being. Because, I mean, I don't want to sound like, you know, as Confucius say, but under the sky, under the heaven, man, there is but one family. It just so happen, man, that people are different.
Thank you guys so much for watching. I'd love to know what did you think of this video? What was your favorite clip? What did you learn from this that you're going to apply? To your business or your life? Please share your thoughts, leave a comment below, and I'm gonna join in the discussion. Thank you again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love, I'll see you soon.
