Seizing the Moment

It seems like sports has a funny way of inspiring my posts.

Today, while I played my friend in foosball, [Foosball is a sport. No arguments.] I came upon a situation in which the ball was trickling slowly towards my goal. I judged the momentum of the ball and deemed that it did not have the speed to fall into my goal, instead, I assumed it would stop softly against the goal railing, providing me with an easy motionless ball to control.

As the ball rolled closer and closer to my goal, I thought: 'What if I'm wrong? Is there any harm in hitting the ball before it even gets a chance to reach my goal?'
At that point, it was too late.
Contrary to my predictions, the ball was not stopped by the rail and plopped into my goal pocket with a dead thud.

This scenario starkly reminded me of a similar theme that I've been experiencing, and having difficulty with in my life lately: "Seizing the Moment."

Take the foosball episode for example. Had I seized the moment and gone ahead and delivered a crippling blow to the ball, the ball would have been cleared out of my side of the field, perhaps I might have even scored a goal. Even if my friend had pulled one of his annoying deflection kicks and scored on me, the result would have been the same as when I did nothing.

Passing up oppurtunities and doing nothing only limits your options, and by doing so you have taken control of your future out of your own hands.
It's something that I've stubbornly ignored up to this point in my life, and it's been killing me.
I can do nothing but wonder about the possibilities.
Never let someone else dictate how your future turns out.

It's important to live in the present while simaltaneously thinking about the future.
After all, there's a reason it's called 'The Present.' It's a gift. It's supposed to be great.
If it wasn't supposed to be awesome, they would have called it 'The Burden," or "The Nuisance," or something stupid like that...


P.S. People who know me pretty well are probably giddy with a case of 'I told you so-itis'
To them I say:

You told me so.