From David Allen, executive coach and productivity maven:

In karate there is an image that's used to define the position of perfect readiness: "mind like water." Imagine throwing a pebble into a still pond. How does the water respond? The answer is, totally appropriately to the force and mass of the input; then it returns to calm. It doesn't overreact or underreact.

(cf. Quiet in There (2011-05-31), Mind Like Water (2011-12-24), ...) - ^z - 2015-05-04