So I’ve almost never gambled. Almost, because I once quit a job after two hours. I left on my lunch break and never went back. Instead I stopped at a local convenience store, picked up a Pennsylvania lottery ticket, and proceeded home.
And don’t you know it- I won!
I mean the ticket was a dud, but I still won.
I knew the moment I walked into that place and was shown my office that I’d never be happy there. The job itself paid just fine for that period of my life- drafting (AutoCAD) in the land development field at a local civil engineering firm. But something felt, well, might I say something felt dank? Dank and drab and dreadful. Depressing, disturbing, and demotivating.
If we aren’t here to be unhappy, or worse yet- miserable, then I needn’t have spent another moment there! When something is not serving us, that is a message to us that we are to make a move. It is up to us to listen to our inner voice to determine what that move needs to be. Lingering in the position and stuck in a state of indecision or sheeplike acceptance of it is not going to change anything, and it certainly won’t better us.
As (Oliver) Napoleon Hill stated in his Think and Grow Rich, “Successful people make decisions quickly (as soon as all the facts are available) and change them very slowly (if ever). Unsuccessful people make decisions very slowly, and change them often and quickly.”
They key takeaway in the example given is that we need to make sure we’re filling our own cups first. One can’t pour from an empty cup. If something isn’t right in your life- fix it, don’t accept it. Even if fixing it is as simple as viewing it in a different light, simply changing your attitude about it. We cannot become complacent in our own lives, the spectator, the victim.
You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run.
…the secret to survivin’
Is knowin’ what to throw away
And knowin’ what to keep.
-Kenny Rogers, The Gambler
