if you want to bring
order, peace, and prosperity
to yourself
then use a light hand and be gentle
with yourself

establish a routine and stick to it
step through the nine palaces
patterning yourself after nature

cultivate in the early morning hours
stand like a tree
accumulating power, strength, and virtue

master all your treasures under the heavens
sit like a mountain
purifying your mind and consciousness

fortify your talents
recline like a great river
flowing throughout the land, towns, and countryside

collect your knowledge and wisdom
crawl on your hands and knees
penetrating deeply into the earth
awakening to your own endurance and potential
learn to appreciate your limits and you will be unlimited

release yourself to the tao way of life
roll firmly within the great mystery
absorbing the everlasting nourishment of living

create and play
become clairsentient
to the tao source of life
and you will become a boundless and everlasting immortal

—Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching; An authentic Taoist translation. translated by John Bright-Fey

In large part, we are our habits, so it would be good if we could habituate ourselves into a mode of being that we could be proud of—in other words, make ourselves into people whose being we assent to. This is the shaping of our conscious will in accord with our internal nature. It is bringing our desires in alignment with what is both possible and agreeable to our animal selves.

This is to be done with a light hand. Remember, what we think of as “I” is merely the rider atop an elephant (a metaphor attributable to social psychologist Jonathan Heidt). While it is possible to berate and abuse our elephants to force them to do what we will, it is a very finite, counter-productive approach. A lesson from psychologist Jean Piaget in regard to moral development: the game that is played involuntarily—the game which requires requires enforcement—is always less efficient and less effective over time compared to its voluntary counter part. Persuasion and negotiation are superior to brute force, and this is true whether we are dealing with ourselves or others.

This is why the conscious will ought to be brought to conform to our internal natures and not the other way around. The will is flexible and under our control; the body is not, though it can be developed, strengthened, and cultivated within the confines of its biology and disposition.

As mentioned, this is accomplished through habit—through routine. What we do each day creates the stepping stones that ultimately constitute the Way. These stepping stones are the “nine palaces,” nine virtues of character cultivated through self reflection, acceptance, practice, and discipline. They are:

balance           poise                 equilibrium
ease                 relaxation        naturalness
looseness        playfulness      embrace

But what habits are proper? What routine is right for developing ourselves without turning into our own task masters? The answers lie in the virtues themselves. Like water, find balance by meeting yourself at your lowest point; stand up for yourself (poise); and thereby find peace and self-acceptance (equilibrium). Once you know yourself, what you can do, and what you will do, you can begin to practice new behaviors and skills. Through this practice, difficulty becomes ease, and labor becomes relaxation. A part of your inner natural becomes unlocked, made manifest where prior it was only potential. Then, once your new behaviors have become second-nature, you can begin to enjoy them, starting by letting go of the need for success or excellence (looseness). Work becomes play, because whatever the outcome, you’ve learned to love the new behavior for what it is more than what it produces.

This is what it means to cultivate virtue, to spend the early hours in honor of the day by practicing whatever it is that is our calling. By engaging ourselves, we make ourselves capable—moreover, desirous—of getting up in the morning, excited to live out the day. Like the tree, we stand tall and accumulate power (i.e. competence); like the mountain, we become unshakable by the tides of emotion guaranteed to batter us throughout the day; and like the river, through the manifestation of our potentials, we become useful to ourselves and to the people around us—a source of material, spiritual, and psychological nourishment.

All this because we were willing to get dirty crawling in the mud, all so that we could meet ourselves at that lowest point.

And now that we’ve acknowledged our limitations, how far we can cultivate our potentials is unknown.

Lao-tzu. “Chapter Fifty-Nine”. Tao Te Ching; An Authentic Taoist Translation, translated by John Bright-Fey, Sweetwater Press, 2014. p.115