Societal Wake

Last week I wrote about societal drag caused by other people and how it slows you down. Drag is the force generated by a solid object moving through a medium such as water or air, and you also get wake. You’ve seen the wake generated by a boat as it moves, that’s the v-shaped waves and foam that travel outwards from the sides. This definition of wake will suffice for our purposes.

If you’ve ever been on a boat following another vessel, or stood at the edge of a platform as a train roars through the station at high speed, or even driven close behind a huge articulated big rig on the highway, you’ve experienced being dragged along by the vehicle’s wake.

When you are really striving to improve yourself other people around you can be dragged along in your wake. You make changes in your life and other people change too, maybe not quite to the degree that you are, and always with a little lag but they are mirroring and reflecting your new habits like an echo. They see you doing your own thing and they see you acting with authority and persistence and they follow right along with you. Either you are making your own wake or you are being pulled along in the wake of another person. Often times you will meet people who have such deeply ingrained habits that permanent change is difficult for them, they bob up and down in your wake ineffectually trying to alter their course or follow you but without the skills and tools necessary to be able to do this.

Most harbours have no wake zones where you are not allowed to generate anything more than the merest ripple on the water and sometimes in your personal development you have to do the same. The no wake zone is there so that you don’t disturb the rest of the harbour populace such as long-term residents. People around you have no wake zones too. Not everyone enjoys or will tolerate the wake you generate as you rapidly change yourself and your surroundings. Many will actively resist you and attempt to thwart your endeavours. The people with no wake zones don’t want to be disturbed and they don’t want to be faced with any kind of change, even if that change is taking place in someone else.

You can decide to not generate any wake at all and go through life achieving nothing. The American author and philosopher Elbert Hubbard said it best, “to avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.”

But then you’ll just get an earful for not amounting to a hill of beans.

So damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

Or you can just be damned and do as you damn well please. Go ahead and generate as much wake as you can and annoy those around you, they are going to complain anyway, might as well give them something to truly complain about!

Within your personal development some days you will want to generate a lot of wake, you’re growing as a person, people will get upset by this but they will just have to suck it up, you’re changing for you, and it is important that you pursue your goals.

Occasionally it pays you to generate no wake at all, running as quietly as possible. This is especially true if you are surrounded by negative people, or the growth you are committing yourself to is far outside of most peoples’ comfort zones. You may have to proceed smoothly and quietly if the community you live in is somewhat parochial and views anything different with suspicion and derision.

A boat produces wake generally from the bow as it cuts through the water, the white foam sprayed up from behind is prop churn, and sometimes referred to as propeller wake. I tend to liken the type of disturbance you create in the surface of your life as bow wake or propeller wake. The different kinds of wake you produce will depend on how you move forward through life and improve yourself.

Most people generate wake with their feet by following others. They take the same paths through life that others have. They follow the established methods of personal development that others have. They’re always waiting for someone else to go first and rarely strike out for virgin territory on their own.

Bow wake is created by people moving with their head first. You’re making your own way in life, you lead, you force change in yourself, your environment, and those around you. You don’t care if you break new ground or seek out new territory. You aren’t going along the paths that so many others have used. Where you are going may not even be charted by other people.

Generating a lot of wake in areas where nobody else has been, by your bow wake, I’ve noticed two reactions from people who get caught up with your personal development. Either they enthusiastically follow you, sometimes to their detriment as they attempt to keep up with your advanced skill set, or they completely turn against you and close their minds to the possibilities and opportunities available.

No matter what type of wake you’re causing it will always affect those people around you and some people will be pulled along just a little bit by your actions and personal development. I saw this when I gave up soda, and then again later when I started eating more raw foods and vegetarian dishes.

When you’re contemplating your personal development, stop and think, are you generating your wake with your feet or with your head? What kind of wake do you want to produce?