#4 Get in the Game!

So you’ve bolstered your confidence and you’re ready for your chance at the big leagues! How do you get there? It might be tempting to think to yourself that you just need a bit of good luck. But you can’t control luck, so you should just wait at the ready for your opportunity. That sounds kind of logical, right?

Well, yes and no. 

Although you can’t control the exact moment that good fortune strikes you, you have to step into the batter’s box for those lucky moments to fly by you. Think of this like the “splash zone” of life. No, you can’t control luck. But you can control how many opportunities you have for luck to find you. Does that make sense?Think of it like this. Let’s pretend you want to make some new friends. Are you going to find any if you hide inside all the time? Probably not. But is every person that you meet going to be your new best buddy? Also, probably not. You can’t really control which people you “click with,” and that’s ok. All you can really do is control how many people you expose yourself to. Eventually you will click with one or two and off you go! 

The point I am trying to push is two-fold. First, you have to get out there. You can’t expect the thing you want to fall into your lap. If you want to date, you have to be where the people are. If you want a job, you have to talk to some employers. I feel like it can be especially easy as Christians to fall into complacency. I’ll admit, I don’t always know where God’s provision ends and my ferocity must begin. I get that struggle. And in that struggle, it can be so easy to fall into a mindset of saying “I just need to wait upon the Lord.” But I think that’s a topic for another time. But either way, I don’t think we are supposed to simply sit around and wait. If we want something, we must take action!

Because the second thing I am trying to push is that all you have to do is get out there. Once you’re in the batter’s box (or, at least, on the team,) pitches will eventually come your way. I know I have a tendency to want to have all my ducks in a row before I even think about starting something. I want to see everything coming a mile away and to be able to predict every variable. It’s a nice idea, but it isn’t necessary. As long as you can get in the game and keep yourself there, the rest will figure itself out. Getting out there will up the number of opportunities you expose yourself to. That way, even if you can’t control luck, you can control how many chances you give luck to show up. Sneaky, right?

I feel like we so often focus on being better at something to get our lucky break. We feel we have to be more attractive to get a date, more qualified to get a job, and so on. And while it’s true that growth will do good things for you, what if the big thing that we are truly missing is as simple as more opportunities? What if all we need to do is get out there and look for more opportunities for our lucky chance? 

But there’s one caveat: not every moment will be your lucky hit. You may have to go through a lot of strike-outs before you hit your home run. You may have several coaches shaking you off the bat before you find one that believes in you. You may lose the spotlight to more than a few foxy-loxies, and you may even be handed a few pink, fuzzy mittens instead of actual baseball gloves. It’s important to constantly remind yourself that all your efforts are to get you into a position to receive good luck. We need to constantly show up and be patient for our lucky break. If we don’t expect each moment to be the lucky one, it will help us pace ourselves for a while. It may still get hard, and you may still lose heart, but it will help you pace yourself if you can see it as a “splash zone,” instead of a hunt for your moment. 

I like to picture it like checking the mail. You might not get something dope every single day, but if you never check it, you’ll never get anything at all. You just have to remember that good packages don’t arrive every day. But as long as you keep checking it, eventually something will show up for you. 

So I pray you begin to find your splash zones. Whatever it is you are hoping for a lucky break in, I pray you find a way to put yourself into position to let luck show up. And I pray luck does show up. I pray you find the path you’re looking for and that you have great success in all you do. 

Until next time

May Peace be your Guide.