What is a win-win situation?
I was washing the dishes a few days ago...with my kids around me in the kitchen. My mind very busy with an internal debate about my next step of happiness that I want for myself & my family. I remember asking myself questions I couldn't answer. One of my kids interrupted my internal debate with a knock-knock joke...
Peta: (She yells from across the kitchen): "hey daddy...knock-knock!
I say: "Come in!"
My son starts to giggle...
Peta says: "No dumb-dumb, you supposed to ask - who's there?"
I say: "But I know its you..."
Lucius laughs hard...
Peta: (giggling she says): "Just do it...knock-knock!!"
I say: "who's there?"
Peta: "Poepol..."
I say: "ok peopol....come in!"
Lucius is rolling on the floor...we're all laughing...
So we tried again & Peta finished her knock-knock that made no sense...but we stole a moment!
Then it hit me...
How are you managing one area of happiness while another is undefined?
To understand this proportionately...let us explore a loose-loose situation first...If you & I are playing chess, & I am able to position one of my pieces in such a way that it is not only protected from being taken but also pose a threat to 2 of your pieces at the same time...you are in a loose-loose situation. No matter which piece you move, you know you will loose something. No matter what you do, you are guaranteed to not only loose a piece, but potentially be one step behind my attack.
We are playing chess with time. Time is our opponent. If I make a series of bad decisions toward my desires & interests I can quickly be in a loose-loose situation. No matter which one I choose, I know that time will take one of them away from me. To position myself in a win-win situation means I need to be that self aware...that forward thinking, that while I am figuring out one part of myself....I am still accomplishing something truly fulfilling at the same time.
I take my desires & needs & passions & interests very serious. I do not allow the grass to grow under my feet....because the clock is ticking. This is like wanting a good steak...only to realize the steak is still frozen when you wanted to prepare it now. If I knew what I wanted earlier, I would have taken the steak out of the freezer sooner. You might not always know what you want in every avenue of your life, but if you fail to think about them...time will claim a chess piece somewhere.
Most people get distracted with what they cant explain or what is not yet finished. We have all heard..."let me just finish here, I will be with you in a moment" This becomes such a pattern of behaviour, where you always have something more important to do than the moment you are in. Time is not waiting for you to first put everything in its place & get everything done before you are ready to have fun or enjoy every moment you can steal in between. I love the concept of "stealing a moment". It suggests an awareness of things happening or about to happen that is important enough that we make the unfinished element wait a bit...and not the person or event that is here...now. Something that is not finished...is the thing that can wait a minute. I will rather steal every moment in my present time & let the future wait on itself.
Maybe you forgot those little cards you used to build of the sequence of events when you were little...
Are you out of sequence now?
Happy thinking.