Life's A Poker Game

"Life consists not in holding good cards, but in playing those you hold well." - Josh Billings.

Losers go into the game with money they can't afford to lose. They always need to win, to get even, to win back what they've already lost. The need to win causes them to lose. They play hands they shouldn't play. They don't fold when they should fold, because they can't afford to fold. They can't afford to play in the first place. Losers are always chasing their losses rather than playing the hand they're dealt.

It's the same in life. Winners play the hand life deals them and they succeed. Losers chase their losses, focus on their problems and obstacles, and continue to add to their losses. Winners make lemonade of the lemons life deals them, then they open a lemonade stand, sell that lemonade, invest their earnings and make their fortunes. Losers sit and look at those lemons and cry, "why me, lord?" hands raised to the heavens, fall into a deep depression and give up. Or they get angry. "Oh yeah, you gonna give ME lemons! I'll show you!" And then they stomp on all those lemons and tear to them shreds, so they're left with nothing. Then they sit around and moan about how they have nothing, no luck, no opportunities. Meanwhile, buddy with the lemonade stand was dealt the very same hand and went on to become the richest most successful person in the world.

You have to live the life you've been given. You have to focus on the positive, focus on your hopes and dreams, make goals, have ambition, always be learning and growing and moving forward, take action, use your talents and gifts. If you focus on the negative, you get stuck in a pattern of negativity. If you're always complaining you'll just get more of what you complain about, the same with worry, the same with regret. Live in the present. Be grateful. Dare to move forward.

I mean look at Oprah. That woman started out with a big ole pile of lemons, being born black, female, poor, add in the sexual abuse and you think it's a wonder she ever amounted to anything, all the odds were certainly stacked against her. I'm sure there a lot of girls who were dealt the very same lemons as Oprah who ended up dead or living miserable lives. And no, she didn't get lucky. She didn't win some kind of lottery jackpot. She's where she is today because she worked her ass off to get there. She played the hand she was dealt to the best of her ability and she won. She didn't chase her losses.

And then you've got someone like Brittany Spears. That girl has so much to be grateful for in her life! Two kids of her own, a family. She was a success since she was a kid. She's already made a fortune and could do anything she wanted to do right now. ANYTHING! She has the resources to pursue any of her dreams. And she squanders it all away. She doesn't care. "Life gave me lemonade but I want lemons, dammit!" She's got every opportunity, life has dealt her a pretty great hand to begin with, I mean in comparison to Oprah, but Brittany's focused on the negative, most likely to do with love and relationships, she's chasing her losses, and therefore she is a loser. She doesn't value her hand, because a person who values their children obviously wouldn't lose custody because of drugs and alcohol and concerns for the children's safety.

Okay, moving on, in poker you need to only play with money you can afford to lose, but you also have to have a lot of patience. If you don't have the cards you need to fold and wait to catch the cards that you know you can win with. Same thing in life. We want it and we want it now, dammit! I'm guilty of this. I see something I want to buy, I don't really have the money, instead of saving the money I buy it on my credit card, which means I end up paying way more for it because of interest and so on. Meanwhile, if I just waited til I could save up the cash to buy the thing, and worked on paying off my credit card once and for all. I'd have way more money at my disposal all the time. We need to have more patience. And this goes for all things, not just money. We want a better job, so we take whatever we can get in order to get out of the job we're in right now as soon as possible. We want to find that special someone, so we hook up with the first person we meet in the bar and hope they are the one. We want to build a home, have a family, get a pet, so we behave in these rash illogical manners to get these things we want. We're always going off half-cocked and wondering what the hell happened when we get what we wanted and it turns out to be a disaster. We need to be ready to roll with opportunities when they present themselves but we need to know when to sit still and just wait.

Yes, you win a few, you lose a few, but the important thing is the long haul, you need to win more over time than what you lose in order to make gains. If you have a weekly poker game that you always go to and every week you lose $50 but one week you win $300, that's no reason to celebrate if you've been playing faithfully for years on end. You're still a loser! One pot doesn't make you the big winner. Same thing in life. You won't always win, there will be losses, pain, suffering, major obstacles that knock you onto your butt, but the important thing to move forward and make progress is to win more than you lose. Accept your losses and move on to the next win.

“You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run. You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table. There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.” -- Kenny Rogers

Mood: having a poker kinda day
Drinking: coffee, black, the cheap stuff
Listening To: just me typing
Hair: pulled back off my face, cuz i still haven't dealt with critical mass