In 1973, Bruce Lee was right in the middle of filming two movies, Game of Death and Enter the Dragon, neither of which would see the light of day until after his sudden death later that year. As busy as he had ever been, Lee tried to process his emotions by writing an article called “In My Own Process,” which resulted in a series of notes to himself.
“Who is Bruce Lee? Where is he heading?” he asked himself. “I want to be honest — that is the least a human being can do.” While not quite a confession, Lee does admit something surprising: “I have always been a martial artist by choice and an actor by profession. But, above all, I am hoping to actualize myself to be an artist of life along the way.”
If you know even just a little bit about Bruce Lee, reading these words in Be Water, My Friend will give you some pause. Bruce Lee the cocky martial artist? The Hollywood superstar? The guy writing letters to himself about wanting $10 million in the bank? That same man wanted to be, “above all,” an artist of life along the way? Wow! It may seem surprising, but Lee’s self-professed ideal was actually well in line with his philosophy, Jeet Kune Do.
To Lee, the highest level of achievement any human could attain was consistent, authentic self-expression. “Start from the very root of your being,” he wrote, “which is ‘how can I be me?'” “Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it,” he reminded himself. “When I look around, I always learn something and that is to be always yourself, and to express yourself, to have faith in yourself.” As long as we do that, we’ve already succeeded. We’re “artists of life along the way.”
Almost as if he had a hunch about his impending fate, Lee wrote: “I don’t know where my ultimate limit lies,” but he was also “happy because I am growing daily and honestly.” Still, he did feel that “the most gratification is yet to come.” And what might that be? Something very simple. Something anyone can attain any day — “to hear another human being say, ‘Hey, now here is someone real.'”
Ask not how you can be someone in this life. Ask only how you can be yourself. Seek the only praise worth seeking — a recognition of your genuine authenticity — and, above all, be an artist of life along the way.
