Matthew Toffolo Blog
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One of my favorite shows growing up was Quantum Leap. I never missed an episode. The show follows the time-traveling adventures of Scientist Sam Beckett who finds himself leaping from life to life, putting things right that once went wrong. After he completes his mission, he leaps to another person in a different time and starts all over again. Helping him along the way is his friend Al, a hologram from the future who helps him complete his mission.
Sometimes Sam falls in love with his setting and the new person he is and wants to stay. Other times, such as the times when he leaps into a woman, he wants to leap as quickly as possible. But the leaping is up to the higher power as they explain it. Sam is convinced that God is the force behind his leaping and he’s just along for the ride.
It’s tough for Sam. Each place he leaps into, it takes him awhile to figure things out. He has to adjust to being a new man (or sometimes woman), figure out why he’s here and what he needs to do. Al is his only constant and if it wasn’t for him, he’d probably go crazy. As soon as Sam gets comfortable with his new persona is usually the time for leap and start all over again.
I know that this show is just an analogy for our own life. Except most of the time we choose when we have to leap as we don’t have God doing it for us. And for some of us, we choose not to leap at all and stay in the world that we like the most. But that’s when he world kicks you in the ass and forces you to leap via giving you some sort of disease, something traumatic happen to you or just one of your main influences (friend, lover, family member) leaps on their own, leaving your life which forces you to leap too as things will always be different now.
I think every single human being faces fears in their lives. Those times when you know its time to move on from something (job, partner, friend, living arrangement etc.) but don’t because it’s just too damn hard to or you really just fear the unknown if this happens. A job for example is tough because you fear lack of money. If you have a lot of debt via mortgage, car payments etc.., you feel your job has got you by the balls because if you quit, you’re in big financial trouble. But you know deep down inside that you should quit but just don’t trust the world enough to help you out. Other times you feel that you must stay where you are for the sake of the love ones in your life. You can’t quit your job because you’ll be letting down your kids.
But I know that each day I move forward in my life towards my death, I want to accomplish everything I set out to do. Complete all of my goals and desires because that will make me the most fulfilled in this lifetime. And I do believe that I’m here in this crazy world to do just that.
There’s an angle for everything I believe and in order for me to accomplish what I want, I just have to figure out the angle. I treat it like a mathematical equation. There’s a solution to everything and a formula to get out of every problem. There isn’t a goal that can’t be accomplished within the gifts and flaws I have received in this lifetime.
If I go back to my own but still brief life so far, I have realized that everytime I have trusted my instinct, that feeling we all have where we really know what the right thing to do is, and went with that instinct, the world has always taken care of me. I quit my job because I knew I needed to, money all of a sudden appeared for me to help me out. I break up a friendship or relationship that I knew I needed to break up (or they break up with me), the pain is great for awhile but things magically appear for me to help me out. And a new person enters to fill that loss and they wouldn’t be in my life if I didn’t break up that relationship.
Two people should not have a relationship together if one person doesn’t want that relationship. It may hurt you a lot after the breakup, but it’s for the best. This is one of my biggest insights I’ve learned in my lifetime. If I or they need to move on and ‘leap’ into another level in our life, a lot of people can’t come with me or I can’t come with them. It hurts so much because the comfort is gone, but I know it’s for the best in the long run.
If we’re lucky, we always have that Al with us who is with us forever helping us out. Being that friend when we need them and vice versa. That person who is you contemporary who leaps when you leap too. I like to think that all of us has that person that we need to find in our lifetime and when we find them, we know it right away.
Leaping is a tough thing to master. Sometimes you delay your leap because you’re happy where you are and it just would be too hard to take that jump. Everything is out of order for awhile as you adjust to your new environment. And you miss those people you’ve formed those relationships with. But they’ll always be there in your heart, you just won’t have a personal relationship with them anymore.
Last week someone from my past called me out of the blue and asked me “What’s up?” It floored me for a bit because I wondered what the sign was for them calling me. We weren’t in each other’s lives anymore. We both moved on. Was there a chance for a new relationship? I knew right away that there wasn’t because we were now living in two different worlds. So why was he calling? It took me a few hours after he called that this was a sign for me. I have been floating around for the last month and it was time for me to leap. I noticed that I was repeating an activity and his phone call made me realize that I needed to stop, take a breather and figure out where I was and what I was doing. I was delaying my leap forward into my next stage in my life.
I have since leaped. I am adjusting but it’s such a better world for me now.
Watch out everyone as this site and our events have only just begun!
Thanks
Matthew Toffolo
WILDsound Co-Creator and Coordinator
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