So, hitting a curve ball

I know I have heard you should stay away from sports analogies because it tends to alienate a part of your audience, but it is my blog, so deal with it (I'm kidding, please come back).  Really tho, I think everybody knows what a curve ball is, and I would say even more people know what is meant when somebody says life threw you a curve ball.

We would like to have nice easy pitches, most of us probably think we are owed them (personally I'm waiting for somebody to put one on a tee for me), but that is not how life works.  Sometimes you have to swing at the curve ball and hope you make contact.

I have given up trying to see the curve ball coming, I am as accurate as recognizing a good curve as I am at predicting Powerball numbers (I drive a 2009 Pontiac G6 with kool aid stains on the front seat).  However, I am trying to become better at adjusting to them.

I do not like change, at all (do you know how hard it was for me to give away my clothes from when I was bigger?).  I still have t-shirts from college and I still have several CD players, despite my music being on my phone.  Of course those are trivial (pursuit?) and really I do not think anybody cares that I have t-shirts that may be older than some of you reading this blog.  The changes, or adjustments, that I should make are always the toughest.

I set goals like most people, and I try to come up with a a plan as best I can.  Every once in a while a hiccup, or curve ball, rears its ugly head and sends me into a little bit of a panic.  I had one of those this week.

See my problem is I am an instant gratification kinda guy.  I like my things and I like my things now (I just figured out where my kids get it from...*sigh*).  When that does not happen, I get a little frazzled and frustrated (I need to work on my long-term patience).

I think everybody is entitled to be a little frazzled or panicked for a little bit after getting fooled by a curve ball, but I think the recovery time is where I need to improve.  Usually I tend to stew or dwell on what went wrong, how I screwed up, how somebody else screwed up, or even how it is going to get worse, but really that does not serve any purpose.  If I could just keep moving (I've heard that somewhere before), I could fix my issues and move on quicker (at least if it is a week the kids are at their mother's house because quick doesn't exist when they are here).

Dwelling does nothing to keep me moving forward.  It makes small problems into mental mountains, and it makes big problems into self-made tragedies.  I do not need that in my life. Dwelling is a poison to me.  It keeps me from being me, from falling asleep, from staying asleep and can make me a pain in the arse to be around.  I need to avoid it.

So while I know I may not make the right decision after swinging wildly at that curve ball, at least I can shorten the dwelling and the amount of time before I finally get to that elusive right decision (sometimes I won't, it happens).  Lets face it, we could all use more time, even if my father liked to argue that time was a man-made invention (no dad, the way we measure it is a man-made invention, time is still ticking away, and it is finite...).

I am still trying to figure out how to make contact, but in the mean time, I will do my best to be ready for the next pitch (I really hope it's thrown underhand).