Thought for the Day:
I started playing Words With Friends (WWF) back in 2013. I figured it would help keep my mind sharp
and active, especially when my body wasn’t cooperating with me the way I
wanted. Late last year, I started
playing with someone new. We are fairly
evenly matched and every game seems like an epic struggle from start to
finish. Even if I develop a comfortable
lead, this woman finds a way to scramble back on top. It’s never easy with her. Every game is hard fought and every victory
is hard won. It seems to me that I
barely outscore her when I win; but when she wins, it seems like it’s by a
landslide. I’d swear that she has won at
least two-thirds of our games together.
But then I look at the Head to Head statistics and we have both won 18
games against each other. Our longest
winning streak against each other is each three games. And our average scores aren’t all that far
apart. So although it doesn’t feel like
it to me, I’m holding my own against her.
She’s good! And a playing with her is a great challenge. I wonder if she feels the same way about me?
As an amputee, I’ve personally found that setbacks are part of my
routine. Right now, if I do more than
3,000 steps a day, I develop a bump on the end of my residual limb. In the
past, that kind of bump turned into an open wound if I kept walking on it. So as long as I limit myself and pay close
attention to how the leg is feeling, I can keep moderately active. As a result, I probably won’t wear my
prosthesis today giving time for the bump to disappear. I really need to have a good evaluation from
my prosthetist and surgeon. I think it’s
time for a new socket or a major adjustment, something isn’t fitting
correctly. I’ve also noticed that I’m
getting nerve pain again, especially on the distal end of my limb. I’ve think that I’ve tried every combination
of socks and made every adjustment possible for me to do—nothing works, so it’s
time to seek professional help.
And it’s springtime! And I want
to be more active than I am! I want to
go for long walks, ride my bike, and spend the entire day on my leg, without
concern. But that just isn’t happening
right now for me. By monitoring and
moderating my activity things are going okay.
But I long for more. Having
limits really messes with your brain.
Honestly, I’ve got it pretty good; but knowing what it could be, it
doesn’t feel that way.
I keep on remembering what my first prosthetist told me. “Don’t just look at the current setback. Look at the big picture and see the forward progress
that you’ve made.” When you are in the
middle of a setback, things look kind of bleak.
It’s easy to get discouraged and feel down. Instead, look back and see how far you’ve
come (despite other numerous setbacks).
That should encourage you to keep your chin up and keep moving forward
as best you can. Honestly, life isn’t as
bad as it may feel at this moment. Every
day you are moving closer to your next break-through where things will look
better.
It all depends upon what you are focusing upon—the setbacks and
failures, or the progress and the victories.
A good outlook and attitude goes a long way towards being satisfied and
feeling better about whatever you are currently going through. And it helps you get through the current low
spot that you might find yourself in.
I’ve found that in playing WWF that sometimes I may have a perfect
opportunity to score big; but I just don’t have the right letter tiles to pull
it off. It feels disappointing knowing I’ve
missed a golden opportunity. Oh, well!
It wasn’t meant to be. I’ve also found that
I can’t pay too much attention to the score.
If I get too far behind, I’ve discovered that I my tendency is to kind
of give up and play the first word that I find, instead of struggling to find
the highest scoring word that I could play.
I’m never going to win if I give up before it is game over. And often enough I’ve played amazingly high scoring
words late in the game to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat; so I should
know better than to give up.
So keep fighting! Keep applying
yourself! Victory may still be right
around the corner if you keep moving forward.
In WWF, I’ve found that you have to play the tiles you were dealt. Sometimes when you have all vowels or all consonants,
you can’t do much. But if you keep
playing whatever you can, eventually you get new tiles and new possibilities. So even if the hand life has dealt you isn’t
the best; play it the best you can. If
you resign the game and give up, it’s a certain loss. Struggle through and you might still lose;
but you may learn a new trick or two and that makes you a better player for the
next game.
No comments:
Post a Comment