Hi, I’m Leah and I watch all intense sporting events by pacing back and forth in front of my TV.
Are the Lakers in the playoffs? You might want to skip watching anything after Game 3 with me.
The Avs are in the Stanley Cup Finals you say? Oh..well…I’ll see you when the series is over.
And my latest nervous watching habit is the Seahawks. Fall in love with a 2nd half team, and your heart starts to beat a little differently for most of every game. I am very careful to keep my trash talking of the other team to a minimum and I try really hard to not throw in the towel even when things look bad.
But every now and then…you just have this moment where you think “Yup. That’s it. Season over.”
I do this in my life too. I’m from a long line of people with low expectations. You know…work hard, get paid, and never ever expect to be more successful or famous or powerful or whole than you are right now. You’ll just be disappointed and that would be what? Devastating?
Do you want to know what’s actually devastating?
Giving up too soon! Quitting is soul-crushing and hard to come back from…because you’ve GIVEN UP. You’ve sat down. Stopped pacing. And decided that you should just accept the disappointment now and wait for the haters to start saying “I told you so.”
Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes we don’t quit and we still lose or fail..and sometimes we fail BIG or HARD. But in that case you never have to look over your shoulder and wonder…”What if?” Because you pushed through to the possibility of the good outcome. You tried. You said “WHAT IF??” with a smile and gave it your all. And if you fall AFTER seeing it through, that’s just a stumble.
But if you quit…give up…step away…don’t take the chance…give the wheel to someone else…decide it’s not work the risk…
THAT…that is a head-shaking shame.
Because now and then, even when it all looks lost…you keep pushing and you come through as the winner. You finish the novel. Get the job. Lose the weight. Run the marathon. Adopt the baby. Speak your mind. Hold crescent pose or pigeon or wheel or whatever is the pose that you hate until your body feels the “ahhhhhhhh!” You win the prize. You stay present in the moment. You get the degree. Even if you fall along the way…You WIN.
Don’t quit too soon. You never start the bus. You wait. You plot. You find your man (or woman as the case may be) downfield and you make the play. Win or Lose…you can’t win the game in the clutch if you don’t thrown the goddamn ball! And that counts for something!
And sometimes this happens…
