Centipede & His Walk

If you become too self-conscious, spontaneity is lost. There is a famous Aesop parable about a centipede: a crab saw a centipede and could not believe his eyes. One hundred legs! How can one manage! Which one to put first and which one next, and next, and next? You have to continuously remember; otherwise, they will get intertwined, entangled in each other, knotted into each other and you will fall. The crab must have been a great philosopher. He asked the centipede, “Sir, can I ask a question? How do you manage? One hundred legs! It must be a constant trouble and puzzle for you. I have been watching you. Just looking at you walking I became so puzzled: which one to put first and which one to follow?” But the centipede had never thought about it. He said, “I have never thought about it and nobody has asked me about it. I will think about it and then I will tell you.” He started thinking, but then he could not take a single step. He wavered and fell. He was very angry at the crab and he said, “You fool! Now I will never be able to walk, I will be worried which leg to put down first. It has never been a worry: things were being managed somehow, nature was doing the trick. Now you have made me self-conscious, you have destroyed my harmony!” If you become too self-conscious, the whole spontaneity is lost. You start manipulating, controlling and the natural flow of things is stopped. Relax, and things happen beautifully.

Source: Economic Times, 1/02/2019