“She loved him yesterday; yesterday’s over, I said okay, that’s all right…”

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When I wrote my first post of 2018, I closed it with the following lines:

 

“Like a deck of cards, some will be worth more than others.

Don’t blame the dealer for that (it’s the nature of the game, after all).

Since, in the end—

It’s up to you to build a winning hand with them.”

 

I mention this now, in my first post of 2019 , because there’s something that should be mentioned – or cautioned, if one prefers – regarding those words.

 

Were I to summarize it in one word, my choice would be:

 

Timing.

 

 

 

Understand that life, being the poker game it is, involves many hands played, rather than just the one countless folks may believe it to be.

 

Certainly, a person has only so many cards (resources) at one time.

 

That’s not being disputed.

 

But as life moves forward, what those resources are and how they align to either serve or hinder (or perhaps both) that person changes as the person in question does.

 

Thus, it’s best to focus on the hand one is playing rather than the hands prior or potentially future.

 

Allowing oneself to not only be trapped by paradigms formed in childhood can be deleterious enough.

 

However, playing to those paradigms is both retarded [literal definition; not pejorative] and very possibly disastrous as the years go onward.

 

 

 

Less so, yet still a snare to avoid, is trying to achieve victory with resources no longer present or unlikely to arrive.

 

Disappointment at best, squandered time and means leading to failure at worst, are the outcomes awaiting the unwary there.

 

 

 

To close using the analogy with which I began:

 

Don’t try to win using cards no longer in your hand.

 

Understand that hand is – for better or worse – over.

 

Don’t try to build “four of a kind” at 40 because you had three kings when you were 19.

 

Don’t attempt to go for a “straight” because, when you were 25, you were so close you could taste it.

 

Your cards (finances/abilities/talents) have changed.

 

Whether they’re better or worse is – to a significant extent – a matter of perspective.

 

 

 

So take careful stock of what’s currently before you.

 

Let what is – not what was nor (to a lesser extent) what will be – dictate your strategy.

 

And play to the best of what you’ve been dealt.

 

 

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