We all fall short of our goals, even the greatest among us have fallen short. Yet those who reached greatness all share one principle in common. They tossed out the shovel in favor of the bouncy ball mentality.
Have you ever seen a bouncy ball bounce? When these things hit the ground – they bounce back up with remarkable speed and conviction. If we would just adopt this same course of action in our own lives, the heights we could reach are remarkable.
The goals I speak of are not necessarily of the monetary kind. They can be of the spiritual kind too. No matter what kind you’re pursuing – the bouncy ball mentality is always your best bet. When you hit the ground you can either keep going down – or you can bounce back up, making contacting the ground a distant memory.
Self discipline is a part of our lives. It’s a big part. A really really big part. It’s not a dirty word, either. The greatest athletes, businesspeople, scientists, musicians, martial artists and gurus have all attained profound levels of self discipline. I can assure you of one thing, they didn’t do it by having staring contests with their mistakes. They did it by relentless perseverance towards their goals. They didn’t focus on the mistakes. When mistakes occurred – they bounced right back onto their path. How else do you think they got to where they are today?
The more we bounce back – the more we put ourselves in a position where we don’t have to bounce back. When we bounce back enough times – we eventually reach greater levels of self mastery. But by focusing on our mistakes, we weaken ourselves.
The best way to illustrate this is by sharing a conversation I had with a bouncy ball one Saturday evening.
“So tell me, bouncy ball, how is it that even after you fall, you bounce back with such vigor?”
“I focus on my goals,” says bouncy ball, “even after just hitting the ground; I focus where I want to be and this forces me upward.”
“What would happen,” I asked, “if your focus wasn’t on your goals but instead on just hitting the ground?”
“I would turn into cement, and remain on the floor, with no pleasant bounce back.”
Ever since this conversation with the bouncy ball, I now direct my mind where I want it to go – and I don’t waste my time directing it to other places.
The less time we spend lamenting our mistakes and the more time we spend putting our mind on our goals – the more time we will spend fulfilling our goals. The body follows the mind.
I will follow in the ways of the bouncy ball because my future is too important not to.
Isn’t yours?
Flash by aquamorph
“The less time we spend lamenting our mistakes and the more time we spend putting our mind on our goals – the more time we will spend fulfilling our goals.” So true! I’m still in the process of accepting that mistakes are part of life and not something to focus on or be afraid or ashamed of. Thank you for the reminder, and for the delightful visual.
Hi Bamboo,
I love the analogy. You’re right on with this. We do have the choice to bounce back or stay down. Personally, I prefer to bounce back. It’s not always easy, but it’s better than being a piece of concrete.
P.S. I love the bouncing ball
Ingenious!
Bouncing or swinging…. hmmm.
I like the image of the bouncy ball, Bamboo.
Yes, life can knock us down from time to time. It happens.
Being able to come back stronger from set backs is a great thing- though it sometimes can be difficult.
I’d rather bounce than splat… that much I do know
Great comparison, Bamboo!
My life is full of bouncy balls – really – literally! They’re everywhere – my youngest son can’t pass up a chance to get one. So they’re all over our house! Here I’ve been stepping over and dodging a great life lesson all this time…
And I love this life lesson. We do bounce back if we keep our focus on where we want to be, not on where we’re going.
Oh, and when I watch the moving bouncy ball up above, I see a “V” – and to me that means Victory! Which is what we’ll have in our lives if we keep on bouncing back up!
Brilliant post! We thing the bouncing ball is simple, yet there was so much wisdom in the answer.
Yeah, the staring contest with failure isn’t too productive. Learning from mistakes is one thing, but dwelling on them is something else.
… meant to say “think”, not “thing”
Ok, let me leave before I have a staring contest with my typo.
Bamboo, your conversation was with a single bouncy ball. My life is more like 100 bouncy balls that get thrown at the same time in an inclosed space. Woohoo. I guess that is better than 100 concrete balls, or even better yet, balls that have no air.
Oooh that is a good one.
And you’ll notice the harder you slam them into the ground, the higher they bounce back. Coincidence? I think not.
After reading this, I was thinking about why a bouncy ball bounces.
Well, first it reaches a point it will not go beyond (the wall), then it compresses because it can’t seem to stop going in the same old direction, despite the immovability of the wall it is up against. But instead of just flattening out and being splat stuck against the wall, it suddenly reverses course with great energy. Why?
Because it has a memory of the shape it was in before; the shape of its design; a perfect circle.
I love this analogy you have use Bamboo, because we can apply bouncy ball physics to all the ups and downs of our lives. And the bottom line is: When you hit the wall use your memory to reverse your course
This memory, like the bouncy ball’s memory, can be the shape you were in prior to this, hurling toward the wall event, or it can be your unconscious yet subtly accessible memory of your innate perfection and beauty of design.
Bouncily yours,
John
@ Vered: You’re welcome. I too struggle with this.
@ Barbara: Well said. Let’s not be concrete.
@ Writer Dad: Bounching.
@ Scott: It can be difficult. True.
@ Lance: “We do bounce back if we keep our focus on where we want to be” Indeed. Now, every time you see a bouncy ball in your house – you can be inspired! I didn’t notice the V until you mentioned this. Good interpretation!
@ Al: Well said. It is amazing what we can find wisdom from if we look for it.
@ Sal: And here I thought I was cool because I had a conversation with a bouncy ball. You had a conversation with a hundred of them! You got me beat!
@ Annie: Definitely not a coincidence. True.
@ John: Wow. Thanks for adding so much insight to this. Good points. You write:
“This memory, like the bouncy ball’s memory, can be the shape you were in prior to this, hurling toward the wall event, or it can be your unconscious yet subtly accessible memory of your innate perfection and beauty of design.”
Good insight!
What a great analogy; the ball bounces back because it’s moving back toward its goals instead of remaining fixated on the mistake it made. I also like what John added about the ball remembering its original shape.
I love this line “with no pleasant bounce back.” It’s so true! Bouncing back is an incredible feeling. Woo-hoo, look at me, I Bounced Back. Ain’t it grand? Ya, baby!
Bamboo-
If, on any given day-we can make just one of those balls bounce back up- it is a good day!
Balls are great…and now they even inspire to aspire. Great post! Perhaps we could add this to our vocabulary, saying “I’m bounced!” in the same way we use the phrase, “I’m stoked!”
“Staring contest with failure”, put a smile on my face. I like the bouncing ball analogy too. And, how many balls don’t bounce? Not many. So, if a person looks at it from this perspective, it’s one of those “laws of life”; meaning hang in there cause we always bounce back. Some balls need more force, but so do some of us.
Hi Bamboo-
I LOVE the newly coined phrase contributed by Tabbie!! “Im bounced!”–Awesome!!!
@ Marelisa: “the ball bounces back because it’s moving back toward its goals instead of remaining fixated on the mistake it made.”
Way to sum it up. Well said.
@ Urban Panther: You go girl.
@ Patti: True enough. I agree. “I’m bounced” is a cool phrase.
@ Tabbie: “I’m bounced” Nice one! Good thinking.
@ Davina: I’ve had those staring contests and let’s just say – they aren’t pretty. Also – very good addition to this concept. Thanks for sharing.
Life is all about resiliency. When we can bounce back and gain momentum from our past we can bounce higher than we ever thought possible.
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! (1974)
Tigger: Come on, Rabbit. Let’s you and me bounce.
Rabbit: Good heavens! Me bounce?
Tigger: Why, certainly! Look, you’ve got the feet for it.
Rabbit: I have?
Tigger: Sure. Come on, try it. It makes ya feel just grrreat!
Perfectly said. Now I just have to practice implementing such sage advice. But I guess that’s just keep trying, isn’t it?
Kelly
@ Karl: Well said.
@ SpaceAgeSage: That’s a great addition to this post. Thank you.
@ Kelly: Precisely. Just keep trying. I will too.
What a great metaphor for reaching our goals. Good to remember that everytime the ball gets thrown at the wall, something is giving it the energy to bounce back.
Brilliantly written, Bamboo. What a great analogy (my wife tells me I love that word too much hehe).
I always tell people that when you fail (or fall to the ground) all you should take with you is the experience and knowledge of what happened, learn from it, and then move on.
In other words, remember it and the lessons learned, but don’t dwell on it.
“The less time we spend lamenting our mistakes and the more time we spend putting our mind on our goals – the more time we will spend fulfilling our goals. The body follows the mind.”
Now this is a truth! I have lived life both ways. I have wallowed in my mistakes with deep grief and sometimes lots of frustration or anger, and I have LET IT GO, and let the strength of the universe send me back on my path….
BOUNCING BACK is better!
THANK you for providing a playground for the rest of us adults to play on. Your imagination and I are friends!
PS…I have tried repeatedly to add your blog to subscribe through feed demon and it says it cannot be located. Is there a way you know of to manually subscribe! Has anyone else had this problem that you know of? Help! I need help to bounce back from this travesty!
Hi – I love the comparison with the bouncy ball. And it’s true – we can learn from our mistakes but we should focus on achieving success.
HI YOU TWO! Congrats on the NBOTW announcement! Woohoo!
Well, John beat me to it, but I have yet another observation to make regarding the physics of bouncing ball. (By the way, it’s a sign of a great analogy when it has LEGS — though balls don’t)
What happens when a bouncing ball hits the wall? (John got this) It COMPRESSES. It does not hold its original shape.
If it did, it will certainly NOT bounce back with the same rigor, momentum and energy that a bouncing ball does.
It speaks of the nature of flexibility required in a pursuit of a better future, don’t you think?
If you are rigid, solid mass, you won’t bounce back. In fact, when you hit the wall hard enough, you’ll crack or break.
By being flexible enough to bounce back, yet solid enough to retain its original shape afterward, you ensure that you continue bouncing no matter how many times you hit the wall.
ari
PS congrats on NBOTW — you nominated me but you yourself was new and uninitiated?
Good post for the post-Labor Day blues.
@ Steve: Glad you enjoyed it.
@ John: “In other words, remember it and the lessons learned, but don’t dwell on it.” Well said. Dwelling is all too easy and all too common.
@ Harmony: Doing both is a really great way to compare and contrast what works better! I have done both too. And “LET IT GO” is the WAY TO GO!
I apologize to you that your attempt to subscribe didn’t work. There is a way to do it manually – I e-mailed you. Also, I will try to fix this. I thought I did, but I don’t think so. Working on it!
@ Cath Lawson: Indeed we should focus on achieving success. I’m working really hard at that now.
@ Davina: Thank you. We are honored.
@ Ari: “It speaks of the nature of flexibility required in a pursuit of a better future, don’t you think?”
Yes. And thank you for bringing a wonderful interpretation to the table for all of us to read and learn from. Great thoughts.
Thank you. We are fairly new. Four months or so.
I have been thinking a lot about self discipline lately. I don’t have much of it or either I just tell myself I don’t have much of it and I believe it. I know I have to change my way of thinking and my actions…very difficult to do, but I never ever stop trying.
@ Natural: “but I never ever stop trying.” This right here is the most important feature of growth.
I love this post, and how you used a simple bouncy ball to magnify its meaning!
@ Daizy: Glad you enjoyed it!