How to Tumble into Your Best Life
A knock on my front door is followed by a bellowing voice.
“Hidey-ho-sister.”
My brother has arrived from Detroit, after visiting a band who inspires him in his own creative pursuits. While I look to megastars like T. Swift and Reese Witherspoon for inspiration, Luke is great at focusing in on relatable heroes. Which is why I should not have been surprised when he told me, “Maddie, when I describe you to people, I tell them my sister is not the kind of person who tumbles through life. She has a sense for what she needs and wants and without much effort starts walking toward it.”
Luckily, I was chopping onions when he shared this with me so he did not notice the puddles in my eyes. One day after this potent conversation, we were adventuring around Cedar Rapid on these wicked cool electric scooters, when scootering fifteen miles per hour I had an impulse to plant my foot straight down into the ground.
Yup. I became a world class tumbler, flinging over my scooter handle bars into a full on, face to soil wipe out. While laughable and memorable, getting knocked around the head helped me to see the whole thing clearly.
I do tumble through life. I have hurled and hurdled and hurt myself all along the way. But Luke saw what I do not most of the time. My tumbling is direction oriented. One throw forward, over the handle bars, at a time.
Aside from splitting your pants and snapping the scooter’s brakes; tumbling through life is a wonderful approach to living for three reasons.
1. Getting banged around shakes off the debris.
Jostling and tumbling around shakes off the extra stuff we do not need to be a part of us anymore. When a tumbleweed starts rolling, seeds and loose sticks scatter behind. The same is with us, when we move states, communities, or jobs, it cannot be helped the pieces of you falling behind.
After moving through five different states, I now expect the physical and emotional upheaval a move brings. Imagine picking up all of yourself and flinging forward into the unknown. You may land a perfect ten on your feet or become a splat everyone gathers around to stare at. Yet the more times I transition, I notice the moving parts that consistently stick with me. For example, everywhere I go I work in a laboratory. Finally, years after getting my degree, I feel comfortable telling people I am a scientist. Each new town I roll through, I seek out good food to prepare meals for my family and friends. My kitchen has become the easiest room to pack because everything goes. I find comfort and security in a new home when my shiny, red Dutch oven gets pulled from the boxes.
The debris that has fallen off along the way is hard for me to list because I honestly do not think about it anymore. There is freedom in being a lightweight tumbler, always able to move on to the next adventure. Clarity of self and purpose is guaranteed when you shed the parts that are not important. Allow yourself to bump and bash around. Who you are and what you love is stuck to you good. You need not need to fear ever losing them along the way.
2. Bumping forward collides you with people you may have missed if you were stuck in the weeds.
Somehow, despite the unspoken rule of silence and my intentions to follow it, I always talk to the person I am sitting next to on a plane. A confined aluminum tube in the air is where I tumble into people who spark ideas for later. But a spark is sometimes not enough to ignite a wildfire. Colliding and tangling with people is so important for blazing success in life.
People who keep to themselves get overgrown with the weeds of self-doubt, boredom, anxiety, stagnation, and repetition. To prevent choking on these problems, it might take a casual conversation with a person who has an opposing opinion. More often a collision is messy business and looks like spending a year snagged by a friend who helps you grieve a loss or identity crisis. Be encouraged today to loosen up your roots and roll. This world is full of people who are different and complex; and if you let them, they can lend a hand or a heart or a mind to your story.
3. The first fall will happen, so get it over with.
Why is it we are so scared to go bungee jumping or zip lining but when it comes to jumping off the last step of the staircase we do not hesitate?
It is because a big leap seems much more dangerous than a small hop. Yet, more people get hurt falling down the stairs then jumping out of a plane. The challenge here is to crash and burn in smaller increments with more frequency. Instead of quitting your job, selling your possessions, and going all in on a dream in one day, pour the time from one night a week into pursuing the goal.
Be prepared to commit to a freefall for those designated few hours though to gain any traction. Getting people and yourself to recognize you are a doer is to keep the momentum forward.
If you stay planted in the ground, you may never tangle up with traffic or get stuck in a bike spoke but you could get stampeded by a buffalo. Damage comes to us all in different ways but if you have been preparing for the scrapes and bruises you will survive and thrive. Bracing for The Fall Out is a waste of everyone’s time and energy. Tumbling through something new and getting it over with removes the hesitation for the next big thing life has for you.
This life, your journey, and each adventure is packed with momentum. Let us live diving into the wind instead of shielding ourselves from the storms. We can shed our extra brambles and burrs and carry our lighter selves forward. Be a tumbleweed and catch the branch of another person today so both of your can fling forward. It is good to tumble and bounce around, just be intentional in where you are headed.
Share below in the comments on what stuck to you from this article. You can also head on over to Facebook or Instagram and share this post with someone you think needs to loosen up their roots and roll!