Recently, I have been feeling like as soon as one part of my life feels settled and under control, inevitably something unexpected in another area of my life pops up. I started feeling like I was constantly swimming upstream, some days barely keeping my head above water, and then it hit me:
LIFE IS A GIANT GAME OF WHACK-A-MOLE.
- You are surrounded by a plethora of holes, each one containing a different area of your life: family, friends, health, career, finances, spirituality, hobbies, passions, (insert your own here),…
- You are equipped with a giant mallet: your focus, your plan, your intention, your energy, your time, your resources, (insert your own here),…
Sometimes one area pops up and requires the most attention, so you focus all of your energy there until it settles down. Let’s be honest, usually multiple areas need your attention at once, so your energy gets thrown back and forth between them, sometimes rather frantically. The frustrating part is that no matter how quickly we are able to gain control, something new always pops up.
Using my life as an example because, well, this is my blog, and it would be weird for me to use someone else’s life as an example: lately, I have been feeling really great about where I am in my acting career. I am consistently working to better my craft, submitting for auditions, auditioning, getting some callbacks, and sometimes landing a role (the true cherry on top, right?). Acting career? WHACK! You know what happened when I started evening rehearsals for my current show? My healthy, planned eating and gym time totally fell by the wayside. Health? POP! If I spend more time at the gym during the day and more focused time planning and preparing meals, suddenly I have less time to get all of our family errands done. Health? WHACK! To Do List? POP! Oops…now I am unprepared for my acting class. Acting Career? POP! Quality time with my kids and husband? POP!
Do you know what I mean? I imagine if you are reading this, you probably feel or have felt similarly. If not, then you really should stop reading my blog and should write a book because you are a MIRACLE and maybe you are a pretend human.
So, what do we do now that we have identified this giant game of whack-a-mole? How do we keep from feeling like we are always behind? Let’s consider why we like to play whack-a-mole despite feeling frustrated:
- It is fun.
- It keeps us on our toes.
- We can keep playing over and over and try to do better each time.
- We can elicit the help of another person to try and whack the moles faster.
- There is no win or lose.
Huh. Look at that. Life really IS a giant game of whack-a-mole. Keep on playing, friends. Keep. On. Playing.
