Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
A gnome is in the garden busily destroying some bushes when a house cat appears.
Cat: “What are you?”
Gnome: “A gnome. I steal food from humans, I kill their plants, I make annoying music at night to drive them crazy, and I love mischief. And what, may I ask, are you?”