Just Keep Rolling... Wheeeeeee!
I ran across an interesting thought this week: “When creative people do their best work, they're hardly ever in charge, they're just sort of rolling along with their eyes shut yelling wheee.”—Stephen King
It’s fascinating how in the moments where life throws the weirdest, most unexpected challenges at us, we have the opportunity to be the most creative and the most resilient. Where we find out what we’re made of and what’s possible, beyond the limits we imagine.
We’ve been watching The Unit (great series if you haven’t seen it yet) and in one episode, there’s a scene where a man being rescued by the Unit team is given a gun to shoot to help defend his family, but drops it. There’s a discussion of subconscious meaning, and then the man steps up taking very creative actions to help the group survive and later makes the point that he realized he’s never had to make a bigger decision in life than where to go out for dinner. That he wasn’t thinking outside the box because he’d never had to before.
We all have those moments—call it a challenge, or call it an opportunity—where life throws us a curve ball and we can either whine and collapse because life isn’t “fair” or we “shouldn’t” have to deal with a situation or we just “don’t wanna”… or, we can keep rolling. Decide not to give up. Decide to get creative.
It’s a muscle, a skill that we can choose to build. There’s a confidence and peace that comes in the conscious decision that whatever life throws at us, we’ll figure it out and we’ll survive.
It might be challenging. We might not see how exactly we’ll get through it, past it, over it, around it… but there’s always a way, and a lesson to learn.
The more we practice perspective and creativity, the easier it is to get through whatever comes our way.
I sometimes have to remind myself we’re all on our own journeys. I can encourage others, offer perspective, offer support. But we each have to make our own choices.
Will we allow the little things to become giant disasters? Or take a beat, smack ourselves with perspective, and get creative when needed?
Today I’m doing laundry after longer than I’m willing to admit. When the water is limited because you haul it yourself, the washing machine is outside and you’re line drying clothes, the sandstorms and wind sometimes make the decision for you on when it can happen. I can plan all I want to. But the weather is going to laugh at me and do what the weather does.
It’s a very small inconvenience in the big picture. Not worthy of my energy to stress or meltdown about. Eventually, it’ll be a beautiful day and I’ll get caught up. Last week I just picked up more socks and underwear—it was needed anyway.
Life’s a lot easier when you choose to just keep rolling. Shit happens. But it doesn’t have to be a huge source of stress or anxiety, unless you choose to let it be.
Unfortunately, the Universe has not yet appointed me (or you) Queen of all things. So we aren’t in charge of what gets thrown at us or what we get to deal with. Instead of stressing, why not just yell “Wheeeeeee!” and enjoy the ride?
You might be surprised how much fun problem-solving and opportunity-finding (and appreciating everything you’ve got, instead of comparing it to what you wish you had) can be. I know it’s surprised me!