on income and being like water

You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend. — Bruce Lee

what would happen if i make it my goal to never have all my income coming in from a single source?

i finished listening to jace clayton’s interview on the longform podcast the other day and he talked about how money works for him. he said that as a dj and a writer, he has a good amount of flexibility with his income. he knows that if work is down in one world, he can ramp it up in the other. he also said that having this flexibility helps him stay in control of his work and image. because he has another way of earning income, it lets him turn down work that doesn’t feel right. sounds ideal.

i also am thinking that about how i can get unplugged from systems that i don’t want to be a part of asap. the faster that happens, the faster i can go full-speed ahead towards experimenting with the systems that i do want to exist in. and hopefully that’ll be easier if i don’t feel tied to old systems. i think having incoming flexibility will help that. i often read about folks “fighting the system,” but their livelihoods as just as bound up in it as the people they’re fighting. anyway, i know trying to unplug won’t work for everyone, but as a young single person, i’m probably in the camp that has a better shot than most. and i think this unplugging thing is pretty central to my personal theory of change.

ok last point: two friends have said lately that i should have one foot in each world that i want to be a part of. i’ve always been a floater and i think i could try to reject that or i could embrace it. not everyone can do it so if it’s a skill i have, why not use it? it turns out i have a fascination with spectrums (spectra?) and moving along them, so i probably should follow that, right?