5 Things Fishing Can Teach You

August 28, 2014
Day 120

I only fish once each year while I'm up here in Vermont.  I've been coming for 10 days the past few years, and though they sell a 7-day and a 3-day license, it's actually a few dollars cheaper to get a season-long license rather than two shorter ones.

Once I'm out on the dock, the adventure begins, and a whole lot of thoughts come at me at once.  It's easy for this to happen, because fishing is 99% waiting and 1% doing.  So I thought I'd just flesh out some of the lessons I've learned this week...

1) To attract people to yourself or to spirituality, or to anything else, you need to use the right bait.  Just as certain fish like certain types of bait (a worm, a minnow, or any kind of artificial bait), so too do you need to understand your audience before you can hope to "catch" them.

2) Time and patience are essential.  Not only do you have to start with the right bait, but you need to allow your "audience" to get used to it too.  Fishing is about tricking the fish, so I don't mean that here.  For human beings, you just need to respect their space and choice.  You can only do what you can do, and they'll either be interested or not.  In fishing, you put your bait in the water, and you allow the fish to see it and understand it first.  They won't just take a bite right away.  And very often, neither will people.

3) Appreciate the mean time.  Iyanla Vanzant has a book called In The Meantime: Finding Yourself and the Love You Want.  I read this book back before I met my partner Andy, and it helped me immensely.  The logic of the book is the same as fishing.  When you're hoping to find a lover or a life or a career or whatever, you need to appreciate the mean time, and not just focus yourself on the singular task at hand.  The fish won't bite if you're literally casting out that bait constantly, over and over, hoping to just hit one on the head or something.  No one's attracted to desperate or unhappy people, so if you focus your energy first and foremost on personal happiness and relaxation, you can catch more fish!

4) Set the hook.  If a fish has bit your bait well, the hook may not yet be really in the fish's mouth.  If you start reeling in too quickly, the fish can slip right off, and swim away.  In the same way, you need more than just good bait to attract people or things into your life.  You need to also set the hook, to really seal the bond, the relationship, or the event.  Don't rush people, and don't rush life.  Respect people's space, and respect the way things work.  If you fight the system or put yourself forward too brazenly, you'll lose whatever or whomever you're trying to catch.

5) Know which ones are keepers and which ones aren't.  Lots of fish will swim into your life, but not all of them will be worth bringing to the table.  Appreciate the ones who swim through for a time, even if they don't stay, but don't surround yourself with anyone or anything that doesn't feel completely right.  The good fish will be worth photographing, and not just because of their beauty, but because of how much of a positive impact they make on your emotional scale.

So be a fisherman or fisherwoman.  Be someone who respects the time and the patience as much as the actual catching of the fish.  And above all, respect the fish too.