Is Your Life a Game of Red Light, Green Light?
As a child, one of my favorite playground games was Red Light, Green Light. The object of the game was for the players – all lined up in a row – to be the first reach the leader on the other side of the field. When the leader shouted “green light”, the players ran as fast as they could to reach the goal before they heard the “red light” command and had to stop.
Are you playing Red Light, Green Light when it comes to your life? Running as fast as you can for short bursts towards your goals and then allowing challenges to stop you dead in your tracks? What are your red lights? Financial pressures? Fatigue? Poor planning? Frustration or impatience? Or are you running in so many different directions that you’ll never reach the other side?
Practice Diligence to Reach Your Goals
If you’re going to achieve your goals, you must be diligent in your approach. Diligence is defined by the dictionary as, “Constant in effort to accomplish something; attentive and persistent in doing anything.” Webster’s 1828 Dictionary also defines diligent as “industrious; not idle or negligent.”
If you feel like your journey has been a continuous series of stops and starts, identify your red lights and figure out where you need to apply more diligence.
Want to know the worst thing that could happen playing Red Light, Green Light? It wasn’t losing. It was when the school bell rang before you got to finish the game.
Don’t let that happen to you.
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Thank you for your little article. I had my own epiphany this morning, when I realized that is what my life is like right now. My life is a metaphor for Red Light Green Light. COVID, relying on other people to get back to you, to finish their work thus holding you up, relying on other people to make decisions so then YOU can make decisions (returning to my workplace post COVID lockdown)… The list goes on and on.
I’ve been working so so hard on my procrastination tendencies, that now I don’t want to stop at all. Now my motto is, “Focus on the relief you feel when the job is done. Don’t just think about doing it, DO IT.”
I suppose I must now focus on learning patience.
Life always presents a lesson in every difficult situation. Glad to hear that yours has made you so productive!