Mastering the 180° Flip Turn
For the times in your life when you want something so much, that to keep striving for that one thing makes you crazy in anticipation, I recommend the 180 ° flip turn. This move is not only unique to water skiing, but to life in general. And it works.
There were moments in my life when the pressure of anticipation was too great. These moments led me to do the unthinkable — self sabotage. Maybe deep in my sub-conscious I didn’t believe I deserved to get what I wanted, and that great things only happen to other people.
When I graduated from theatre school and wanted to be an actress, but had a baby instead, I moved to the Sunshine Coast to focus on raising my family with no distractions; in this flip turn, I soon found myself acting in community theatre for years AND caring for my family at the same time. I got to have the best of both worlds.
When I wanted a love relationship in my life so badly, but the man I was in love with was completely unavailable to me, I joined a dating website. After 10 dates with nice men where we shared our stories for an hour or so over coffee, I decided to shut down my profile and love myself. It was one of the dates that made me realize I was searching for love outside myself; he praised my approach and encouraged me to do the flip turn because he astutely recognized that I had to do something different than I had always done. Searching for a love relationship is not a contrived shopping spree, nor an ocean to be conquered.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.~Einstein
I had to ask myself: What is my pattern? What do I always do that makes me feel crazy? Then decide what was the exact opposite and move in that direction.
Pattern: I fall fast. I love much. I’m all in.
180° flip turn: Stand tall. Love a little. Stay on the sidelines.
Okay, well, that’s not me, but I will give it a try.
The danger when doing the flip turn, as demonstrated in the above photo, is the complete oblivion to seeing where you are going because you have your back turned to the direction in which your entire body is being propelled.
When my daughter was a toddler, she did this: she would turn her head over a shoulder looking at the person she was running from, and run away in full speed through a door frame, or around furniture, laughing all the way. It amazed me that she never managed to collide with any solid objects. This was my daughter’s agility, I suppose. Me, as I was more likely prone to do, would miss the door opening, flatly hit the wall, or trip, stumble and fall.
The 180° flip turn when your back is turned depicts the thrill of the moment, the edge, the place where magic happens — facing the unknown. This moment is what makes this trick spectacular!
I was in a long distance relationship for four years. The magic moments of our mountain encounters were beyond words. The anticipation of seeing each other after long periods of separation became unbearable for me. All or nothing. (Remember, I am all in.) So, I moved my entire life and belongings to be closer; to put the relationship to the test of day to day “reality”, only to have him turn me away at his door. I was devastated. I had made an 180° flip turn only to have it flop. No worse. The momentum of being propelled against my own naivete and insanity smacked me hard. It took more than three years to recover. What was I doing wrong?
Life had thrown me in a new direction, the opposite to where I was heading, or so I thought, and I had to re-route. Can you hear the voice on your GPS re-calibrating to adjust to your vehicle making a change en route? Except I didn’t have an exact destination programmed into my GPS. That location came up with No Results Found.
Now what?
Love. Love who? Love where? Love how? The questions we all ask at some point. And the answer is: It’s All Love. Every painful, exciting, magical, devastating part of it called Life. When I opened my heart, love flowed in, love attracted others to me, and I could be spectacular without getting hurt. When I became afraid, closing my heart even just a little to protect myself, the wall hit harder and faster than expected. And it hurt.
Falling in love is insane.
It’s not worth it. It’s not worth falling in love with someone who will leave, reject, ignore, abandon, or die on you. It’s much better to play it safe and keep your head turned in the direction of one straight line. When you can live your life on your terms, then you do not risk losing yourself, or your identity for someone else. Know who you are. Love yourself.
Then it will happen.
