I Don't Play Games I Can't Win

I am a man of progress. I don't have a lot of patience with complete failure. I say "complete failure" because not all failure is equal. Suppose you're trying to learn how to do a backflip. You will probably fail dozens of times before you do one successfully. However, every time you make the attempt, you learn something. You figure out what went wrong. You work out what needs to be done to fix the error. You train your body to do what you want it to do. Although you are failing, you are making progress toward success, which, ultimately, is success.

What I will not put up with is a fruitless endeavor. If you try to do something, consistently fail, and make no progress, I get very irritated and give up very quickly.

People may disagree with me on this system. I know that my inner writer wants me to believe that if I persevere just a little longer, everything will magically become better, but more often than not, that is a sequence which exists in our fictional stories.

I don't give up at the drop of a hat; I do it when I am out of options. If I want to succeed at something badly enough, I will throw everything I have at a problem. But when I'm out of things to throw, then obviously I don't have what's needed.

The point of this post is not to be a downer. The point is to pay attention and focus. What do you want to do? What are you doing in order to succeed? What are the obstacles? What are you doing to overcome them? And most importantly, are you making progress?

I don't play games I can't win. They are a waste of time and energy. I still write. No matter what happens, I know it is a worthy endeavor, and I am going to keep going down that path.