I like to stretch things as much as possible, so every once in a while I might make posts paralleling things that seem completely unrelated and see if I can bring them to a cohesive connection. Today’s parallel: Life’s a trampoline.
What sparked this thought?
Some of our family wasn’t able to make it by Christmas, so we ended up using today as our family Christmas celebration. At the beginning of the day, we all went to a trampoline park. There are quite a few grandkids in the family now, so it’s fun to see them play/jump/fall on the trampolines.
I didn’t grow up with a trampoline, so I am terrible at all things trampoline. I can jump high and that’s about it. I can’t do flips and I can’t do tricks. I just don’t have the skills.
I realized something though. While I don’t have the skills that some of the people doing these crazy tricks have, more than this, my mind is not conditioned to believe that I have these skills.
I spent a better part of ten minutes trying to convince myself to do a backflip. I’ve done one before, I can do it into the foam pits, but I just could not bring myself to do a backflip on the regular trampoline. Physically, I was all there. But my mind just would not let me flip.
I was so frustrated. I see all these other people doing these crazy cool things wishing that I could do it, but my mind told myself that I couldn’t, and it controlled me.
How often in life do we write cool things off, or decide that a dream is too big simply because our mind tells us that it’s not possible? That if we try we’ll only get hurt, so we don’t allow ourselves to ever take that risk. We are able to accomplish so many things, but we often decide that we can’t, so we don’t. It reminds me of the famous Henry Ford quote:
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right”
Now, I’m not one of those “Go after all your dreams, follow your heart, you do you” kind of people. But I do think it’s important to understand the difference between our limitations and what we think our limitations are. Often, I think we think these are the same thing, but they aren’t. Going back to the trampoline example:
If you’ve jumped on a trampoline before but have never been able to do a front flip and you say “I’m going to land three triple front flip in the next 10 minutes,” you are just setting yourself up for failure. You are not understanding what your true limitations are. However, if you go out and say “I will attempt 4 front flips in the next 10 minutes,” all of a sudden you have something that is possible. Sure, you will still have to get over the fact that your mind is telling you that there is no way on earth that it is putting your feet above your head, but all you have to do is attempt. You don’t have to land it, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t even have to be pretty, but you will attempt it, and you will do it in the next 10 minutes.
Now that you’ve done this, you can set your next small but achievable goal. This also helps to take away the comparison game feelings of “they grew up privileged, so of course, they can do it, but I could never get to that level.”
Once again going back to the trampoline example, if you’re there at the trampoline park and you see this 6-year-old kid who can do every form of flip imaginable, guess what? He’s probably going to be better than you when he hits your age, but that doesn’t take away from what your goal is. Your goal is simply to attempt four front flips in the next ten minutes. Who cares that Billy’s parents bought him a trampoline when he was two and let him come to the trampoline park three times a week? All you care about is meeting your goal. Get your focus off your annoyance for 6-year-old Billy’s stupid amount of skills and get it back on your goal.
Keep hitting your doable goals, and pretty soon you’ll realize the progress you’ve made.
Things that are true both about life and trampolines: There will be ups and there will be downs. There will be times when you get hurt, there will be times when you hit your wildest goals. There will be times where you are lonely, there will be times where you will have a team of supporters. There will be times when the world seems upside down, and there will be times when you realize that’s when you love the world most. There will be times when you teach and there will be times when you are taught. There will be times when you feel you can’t make any progress, there will be times when you can’t stop achieving.
There will even be times when everything falls apart and breaks. Don’t worry. It can be put back together, but be patient. It may take time.
Life’s a trampoline.
Just keep jumping.