The Yin and Yang of Success

Success is no longer defined in financial terms alone. It’s beginning to be understood as an alignment between life and livelihood, between monetary gain and an abundance of joy, vitality and good relationships. While it’s undoubtedly important to reach professional benchmarks and organizational goals, there’s a softer, more difficult to measure, side to success. Companies are finding out that when employees’ lives work, their work works.

The ancient Taoist concept of yin and yang is helpful in articulating the balance between striving for excellence and productivity (yang) and supporting creativity, rejuvenation and dignity (yin) in the workplace. There is no such thing as absolute yin or yang. There is always at least a little yin in the yang and vice versa. That’s why the yin/yang symbol has a dark circle in the light area and a light circle in the dark one. For thousands of years, Taoists have taught that the physical world is a constant swing between yin and yang. And while balance between the two is an ideal, it’s literally impossible.

You’d die if your body hit pinpoint homeostasis. Breathe in, you’re more yin; breathe out, more yang. Yin and yang are dynamic, relativistic terms: you might be more yin (kinder, gentler) than your boss but more yang (goal and fact oriented) than your friend. Even at rest, a yin state, our hearts and lungs are pumping, a yang activity. Men are generally considered more yang, women more yin; but the terms transcend gender to help us distinguish qualities.

While there is no absolute balance point, the healthiest cultures develop equanimity between yin and yang, allowing the proverbial pendulum to swing both ways. On a personal level, it means balancing movement and rest, feminine and masculine, goals and feelings, creativity and productivity, work and play. Accordingly, happy people and progressive cultures have always sought out diverse vantage points in order to bring forward the most universal solutions possible.

Our millennia old yang-ward spiral, characterized by predominantly male religious and political leaders, ever expansive militarism, and a profit-at-any cost mentality has produced a poisoned planet, starving children and a level of universal violence that commands an unprecedented percentage of our resources. We have yang-itis! Just like we need positive and negative charges to create matter, and just like batteries need positive and negative poles in order to spark, and just like we need day to turn to night, we can’t reach our evolutionary potential if we don’t uplift yin values for well-being and reaching full potential. For example, for the first time in history we are capable of declaring that all kids eat and go to bed safe and warm. Instead, we pay for weaponry and multi-million dollar executive bonuses that perpetuate the yang imbalance that keeps hungry kids in their place.

So what does that have to do with personal success? The Golden Rule, which every major religion has a version of, says it all. “Treat others as we, ourselves, want to be treated” is a good starting place but we also need to do the opposite – treat ourselves as we think everyone else ought to be treated. In other words, when we do what it takes to claim our personal yin territory for enhancing relationships, being creative, recharging our batteries, and participating in vital work environments, we do our part in creating a world that won’t stand for the pervasive cultural static of yang dominated messages like “buy, buy, buy,” “be afraid,” “quarterly profits rule,” “war machines matter more than feeding kids,” “youth is more important than age,” and “intelligence trumps wisdom.” Taoist philosophy explains that such a yang imbalance would necessarily cause, or at least reflect, a culture bereft of heart and soul, i.e. a yin deficiency.

The antidotal yin-izing is already happening as more and more companies provide child and elder care, flex time, and support for personal growth and creativity – all of which are yin practices. It’s not an either/or – there are times for goals, rules, action and productivity and there are times for brainstorming, communications exercises, open-ended targets, anecdotal input, and co-creative processes. It’s no accident that even in today’s troubled financial times, the socially responsible, triple bottom line (people, profit and planet) companies’ stocks remain solid. When core values for caring are balanced with solid business practices, magic happens.