I was never much of a video game player. In an arcade, I could typically be found at a Skee Ball machine piling up tickets to buy junk at the prize counter. On occasion, I would wander through all of the noise and lights to peak at the games others were playing. The games like Street Fighter never appealed to me. The draw of those still remains a mystery. One thing about them, though, always drew my attention. I have not looked at one of those machines in years, but I can still see clearly in my mind’s eye the fight stance when the character was waiting for the player to move the joystick. They stood engaged, bent knees, bent arms, and making tiny bouncing-type movements while ready to engage their opponent.

Do you ever feel like one of those characters? Like you are just waiting for someone to move the joystick? I absolutely do. It seems that in every phase of life there is waiting that occurs. When we are little, we are waiting to be big. When we are in middle school, we long for high school. In high school, we look to graduating. After graduating, we can’t wait to move out and take control of our lives. The cycle of waiting continues throughout life.  

Somewhere in the midst of all of that growing, changing, and waiting we get stuck. We develop a dangerous mental precedent. We train ourselves to believe that success will happen only after we arrive at whatever it is we are waiting for. The saddest part of living that way is we don’t recognize and give ourselves credit for our successes in each phase. We are content to be the waiting character and give “one day” the joystick. We spend our time thinking futuristically while discounting our right now as if things done today don’t matter.

I got married at 32 years old. Between college and meeting Hubby Guy I was stuck. I spent unquantifiable amounts of mental energy being consumed by singleness. I thought about little other than “one day”. I am ashamed to admit that during that time the only thing I could label as success was getting married. I just busied myself with daily life. When I look back, I realize I did lots of great things that I would definitely label as successes. Instead of celebrating, I waited. Instead of pursuing other dreams, I waited. Instead of enjoying todays, I fixated on tomorrows. In doing so, I missed out. There is no telling all that I missed out on.

What carrot is “one day” dangling in front of you? Does whatever it is prevent you from being successful today? Seriously, consider it. Our todays are valuable. There is not a thing wrong with looking and planning for the future. There is a problem, though, with not believing we are just as valuable today as we will be when we arrive at the place we are waiting for. Often the little successes of today are what set us up for the bigger successes later. Our diligent work right now only serves to sweeten the deal.