How a robot arm broke me…
Some art speaks, but some art screams into your soul, forcing you to confront your deepest fears, struggles, and truths you might rather avoid. The piece "Can't Help Myself" by Sun Yuan & Peng Yu does exactly that. It’s not just a mechanical robot arm repeating the same movement—it's a gut-wrenching, emotional experience that mirrors so much of what I, and probably you too, face as humans every single day.
If you haven’t seen it yet, let me paint a picture: a robot arm, programmed to contain its own hydraulic fluid—the lifeblood that keeps it "alive." It scrambles, scrapes, and claws to pull the leaking liquid back in, desperately trying to stay "alive" in a futile, never-ending struggle. When the project first launched, this robot arm danced. It could spare the time to move playfully with spectators. The leaks were small back then, and it could afford to interact, to enjoy its existence.
But over the years, the leaks grew worse. More fluid escaped, and the robot’s movements became tired, slow, and frantic. Watching it, I feel its struggle—the panic, the exhaustion, the hopelessness as it battles to stay afloat. And in 2019, the inevitable happened: the robot ran out of fluid, came to a halt, and "died."
I can’t help but feel the haunting truth in this piece. How closely it mirrors us. The way we often scramble to keep everything together: life, work, relationships, expectations. Just like that robot arm, we try to dance, to interact, to experience joy. But the more we struggle to contain everything—to stop the leaks—the more exhausted we become. And I ask myself, what’s left of life when all we’re doing is trying to hold it together?
a never-ending chase
That robot arm... it's me. And maybe it's you, too. Endlessly trying to manage the constant pressures of life without ever taking the time to stop, breathe, and reassess. Every day can feel like survival mode. Maintaining, not flourishing. Containing the leaks, not enjoying the dance. It’s a life of feeling driven by fear—fear of failure, fear of not being enough, fear of letting go.
And that’s why this autumn, I’m releasing The NEO Strategy. NEO stands for No Expected Outcome, and it aligns deeply with the message of Can't Help Myself. It’s a strategy to address the feeling of being trapped in a system that demands everything of you—your time, your energy, your spirit. And what’s left at the end? Little to no room for rest or fulfillment. NEO offers a different approach: one that lets you breathe.
letting go of expectations
This piece forces me to ask: when did we forget how to dance? In its early days, when the robot’s leaks were small, it danced. It could spare those precious moments to move freely, to play, to enjoy. But as those leaks worsened, it lost its ability to dance, focusing only on survival. Isn’t that what happens to us, too? The more the demands pile up—the work, the expectations, the responsibilities—the less time we have to actually *live*. The dance turns into desperation.
This is where the NEO strategy comes in. At its core, it’s about letting go. Letting go of the expectation to have it all under control. Letting go of the need to be perfect, of constantly striving for more without even knowing what "more" means. It’s about choosing to dance amidst the chaos, no matter how messy it gets.
breaking free
And then there’s the tragic beauty of Can't Help Myself. The robot was programmed to fail. No matter how hard it tried, how desperately it clawed at its fluid, it was never going to make it. That mirrors how so many of us feel—caught in a system that demands so much of us, it feels impossible to escape. We’re working hard just to stay afloat, endlessly battling the leaks.
But the NEO strategy challenges this. It asks a different question: What if the goal isn’t to endlessly fight the leaks, but to change how you respond to them?
Imagine not reacting to every spillage, not scrambling to clean it all up. Instead, what if you focused on what really matters—on what brings value, joy, and meaning to your life? By embracing NEO, you stop endlessly patching up the leaks and start living with intention.
a mirror to our lives
The story of this robot arm reminds me how easy it is to lose ourselves in trying to "keep it all together." And just like that robot, how often do we spend so much energy trying to survive, that we forget to actually live?
NEO offers a way out. It’s about finding balance, yes, but also about surrendering to what is. It's about allowing yourself to dance in the midst of the chaos, not waiting for perfection or for everything to be "fixed." It’s about focusing on what matters now, in this very moment.
So, the next time you feel like that robot arm—desperately trying to gather up all the leaks in your life—pause. Take a breath. Ask yourself: what truly matters right now? And let yourself find your dance again.
