Hi everybody,
I am Jin coming to you from Phoenix, AZ. I hope life is treating you well wherever you are. Thanks for joining me today! Welcome to my Healthy Positive Lifestyle Podcast!

For three previous episodes I was bringing guest speakers, and I will continue doing that. I meet a lot of great teachers, coaches, trainers, holistic practitioners, and I’d love to share their knowledge with you.

Another thing to remind you is that I started a second podcast several weeks ago, and it became very popular right away. It is called Morning Mindfulness. Episodes go for about 2 minutes, and I am making some points on different topics about mindfulness, meditation, life coaching, etc. I am trying to make it consistent 5 times a week, Monday through Friday, and release them at 3:30 AM so morning commuters can get a couple of minutes of positive message on the way to work. You can find it on my site HPLN.org.

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Today I’d like to have a very serious talk about… a toy. Yes, very serious toy. Most of people I am sure have seen it. You can google it under the name Roly-Poly Doll or Roly-Poly Toy, or under Tumbler Doll. In Russian it is very well know under the name Nevolyashka or Vanka-Vstanka. There are similar dolls in other countries. They look different, but they all have a similar feature: no matter how many times you knock them down, no matter how you throw them on the floor, they always get up.

Yes my friends, you probably figured it out by now: I will be talking about a doll that never gives up, never stays down no matter what happened.

As I read on the internet, a toy manufacturer recommends roly-poly toys for small kids just developing motor skills. But I disagree. I think every adult should have one of those on their desk.

I first saw this doll when I was a small kid. My cousin who’s one year younger than me, had it, and it was pretty cool to see that toy get up every time, although it was getting very boring really quick after several repetitions.

My second time to meet Roly-Poly was when I was already a teenager. I saw it at the movie about a Russian man who created famous SAMBO, Russian wrestling and hand-to-hand combat system. That man had a wooden Roly-Poly doll he carried with him. He said it was his main teacher. And the philosophy was to never allow anybody knock him down on the ground. No matter how he was thrown in wrestling, he was always landing on his feet.

I thought it was a very nice movie. But at that time it did not really click. For me, it was nothing but a cool story.

Twenty years later, when I began studying leadership and started working with very successful coaches, I’ve learned that successful people never give up. They may be knocked down, but they always get up one time more than they were down. Just like in the song, “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.”

Not long ago as I was thinking about SAMBO, I remembered that movie, and the doll. Now I think I need to get me one of those to put it on my desk as a reminder. “Reminder of what?” you may ask. Well, I think this doll can teach us several valuable lessons.

The first lesson is what I started with, and it is obvious: Never give up. It doesn’t matter how many times you are pushed or knocked down by life, you always get up again. And again. And again.

There are many strategies for how not to give up. I talked about some of them in my stress management episodes, and I will be talking more in coaching lessons. But the point is simple: for as long as I am alive I want to have the image of this Roly-Poly doll in front of my eyes. Just get up.

When I look at small kids, they remind me this Roly-Poly Doll. Seriously. What would’ve happened if you or I stopped getting up when we were learning to walk? Can you imagine a child who falls on the floor and says, “that’s it, I don’t have personality to get up and start walking!” Or this one, “I was not made for that” Here’s my favorite one, “I tried a couple of times, and it did not work for me.” Or this one, which is so classic, “My cousin told me that I’m going to fall!”

No, that doesn’t happen. When small kids learn to walk, they will get up every time after they fall, just like Roly-Poly doll.

After they learn how to walk, and they don’t fall that often any more, they still keep the attitude of the doll. You don’t tell small kids they cannot do something. If they are on the mission, failure is not an option.

What happens to us while we are growing up? How many times are we told we cannot do something? How many times we are told to stop dreaming and get real? Let me ask you, my friends, what is the frame of reference of this so called “realism”? I am not sure how many significant discoveries in the World were made by such realists.

I remember reading about a man who never gave up playing with dolls. His name was Walt Disney. I read he was sending his ideas to his Board of advisers, or directors, I don’t remember the detail, but this is irrelevant. The point is, if most of the board members were finding those ideas great, Disney would cancel them. He was only accepting those ideas that the whole Board thought of as impossible.

There are so many discoveries in the World that were made by people who were not afraid to pursue what seemed to be impossible, and they were not afraid to fail on the way of accomplishing that. Did they fail? Of course! Numerous times! Hundreds, even thousands of times! But they all kept the attitude of the Roly-Poly doll: get up and do it again. Or in case of life path, do, fail, adjust, repeat. Simple as that.

I don’t remember for how long my cousin had that doll. I do remember though what happened to it. I was really curious child. I really wanted to find out what was making the doll get up. And I did.

I don’t encourage everybody to go and start breaking dolls, that’s not the point. But what happens to our curiosity after we grow up? Where does it disappear? I just finished reading a book called “The 15 laws of Growth” by John Maxwell. And one of the laws he was writing about was the law of curiosity. He stressed the importance of continuously asking question “WHY?”

I know at some point of my life I started doubting my own sanity. I want to know new things, I want to learn something new every day, otherwise I get bored. Is it too childish? Should I do something about my infantile mindset? Get a grip on myself? Take a pill?

John Maxwell in his book suggested, never stop being curious. He wrote, and I quote him, “Knowledge, understanding, and wisdom will never seek you out. You must go out and acquire it. The best way to do that is to remain curious.”

Zen teachers say that zen mind is a beginners mind. We can really see what is going on and learn something only if we keep our mind like a beginner, or a child. Keep the child’s attitude. Be amused by what is going on. Ask questions WHY and WHY NOT, and don’t play by rules. Whoa, slow down! I am not suggesting you start breaking rules. What I mean, have you ever met a child playing with a toy the way we expect it should be played? I haven’t. We learn main principles of success and personal growth being kids, and then we forget about them as we grow up. Learn from kids, keep beginners mind, remain curious and have a Roly-Poly doll to remind you about that.

Finally, and I think this is a good reminder, Roly-Poly doll is always smiling. You knock it down, it gets up with the smile. By the way, this is what we do in Systema martial art: we spar with the smile on the face. This helps us to keep tension and negative emotions away. Keep the doll on the desk, look at it often, and smile. I teach Inner Smile exercise in my classes. Smiling Roly-Poly doll is a good reminder to smile.

Well, I truly hope I made some sense and you can learn something from my talk. I hope to hear from you. Please send me your questions and comments. This helps me to come up with topics useful for my listeners. Contact me at
HealthyPositiveLifestyle@gmail.com. You can find my page on the FaceBook as Healthy Positive Lifestyle Network or you can follow me on Twitter @HPLPodcast

If you found something useful in my podcast, or if you have suggestions on how I can improve, please drop me a line too. I would really like to know.

Don’t forget to visit my site HPLN.ORG
You can find there a transcript of this episode and a schedule of my classes.

Hope to hear from you soon!
Until then,
Smile, be happy, and keep standing with the smile no matter what happens.

This was Roly-Poly Jin from Phoenix AZ. I’ll talk to you next time!

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Peace!

Jin