I’m BJ Teriba

Push vs Pull - A Tug Of War & Life

prepmanagementinc • January 24, 2022

Our lives are composed of the various outcomes that our actions & habits produce and enable.

Squid games is one of the best shows I've seen in the last 5 years. My favorite scene was the  tug of war game Seong Gi-hun , the protagonist of the show and his team were pitted against Jang Deok-su and his band of theives.
It's tug of war, so while the physical action was pull for both sides, the strategies on how to use energy came down to push vs. pull. In the end, the team that won was able to redirect their energy and allow themselves to be pulled, then at the point of impact push themselves to victory.
Push and pull are two key words in this post, so we'll define them before getting into the story.

Push actions are actions that direct energy outwardly to produce effects. Pushing a weight. Sending an email to someone. Drilling a nail. These are things that require us to use our force and the tools at our disposal to create the energy needed for an outcome to form.
Pull on the other hand is to direct energy toward oneself to create an outcome. Dragging a heavy bag, creating a strong brand that forces people to reach out for your services, the law of attraction -- these are all versions of creating energy and redirecting to create outcomes. Now that that's out of the way, back to the story.

Our heroes were outmatched from a physical standpoint right out of the gate and struggled early. Their strategy was to use brute strength to push & coerce he other team into the pit, but the other team had the advantage.
They fought hard trying to push their adversaries for two minutes to no avail, using their energy and pushing their bodies to the limit to fight.
Then, Sang-woo, Seong Gi-hun's childhood friend turned backstabbing traitor (spoiler alert) came up with a plan: Let the other team pull us at the right time so they fall. Then while they're down will pull them to win.
The team had their apprehensions, but with no options left, agreed to the plan. They gave it one hard pull and went limb. They slid and stopped right at the pit. Seong Gi-hun was one foot off the platform hanging with his life in the balance.

Push actions are actions that direct energy outwardly to produce effects. 

But the other team had fallen. They were pushing themselves so hard that when Seong Gi-hun's team redirected their energy and let themselves be pulled, they couldn't pump the breaks to stand upright.
 So Seong Gi-hun's team rallied. They got up, used the last of their energy to pull and pulled themselves to the wall of the platform, pulling the other team to their death.
So another chapter of the typical hero's story comes to an end there. But what does this mean for our daily lives? Our lives are composed of the various outcomes that our actions & habits produce and enable. The current status of our lives is the culmination of the building blocks of the actions we have commit ted and banked throughout our time on this earth.
Both kinds of actions serve us in a complimentary way to one another. Discerning, how, why and when to use each form of energy is key to creating desirable outcomes in this life.
So when you're thinking about the outcomes you want and the actions you need to commit to: ask yourself if push or pull is better in this case.

Pull on the other hand is to direct energy toward oneself to create an outcome. 

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