#7 Life vs Pool Billiards

For those who do not know what is pool billiards, its something like snooker, but with less number of balls and much bigger in size, with different rules as snooker. It looks like this.

I first played pool when I was in secondary school, around Form 4 or 5, and it turns out that I actually like playing it. 

Then, I was studying in UNMC, they actually have pool tables for students to play for free! Back in the day I played for most of my free time, and my skills improved from time to time. 

So how does life have to do with playing pool? 

For pros who play pool, they not just aiming to shoot the ball into the pocket, but they adjust the power and the direction of the cue ball (white ball) so that it not just enters the ball, but roll it to the place they desire for it to stop at a perfect position for aiming the next ball. Its call "positioning". 

In life, we have to constantly make decisions. But sometimes, making decision is difficult for me. I tend to over-thinking and making the problem way bigger than it used to be, and it demotivates me. Hence the procrastination starts, and the problem gets way bigger in result. 

However, today during my lunch, it struck me that playing pool can actually relate to life. I play pool with the intention of positioning, and sometimes it makes me missed my shots. Same as life, there's no use if you make a lot of plans, or plan many things ahead, but you missed the first step/did not take the first step. Sometimes we should tackle one problem at a time, entering balls one by one, solving crisis one by one. So what if the problem doesn't get perfectly solved at one decision? We just have to tackle it few more times, at least it is progressing, and the problems will eventually solved. And for my opinion, most problems don't get solve through one decision making process. 

In pool, you can say that winning the game required "luck", because anything can happen during the game. Your opponent may have enters more balls then you, the table may have five or six of your balls but the last for left for you opponent, it seems hopeless for you to win. However, many times I had faced this situation, and I still win at the end. Why? Because I'm lucky? Maybe, but more frequently it was because they tend to get nervous at the last ball, making them to miss their shots. This gives me the opportunity and chances for me to win, provided that I have a good performance. 

At life, sometimes a situation can be seen as hopeless as it gets, but as the saying goes, "the day is the darkest before the sun comes up". Frequently, before success there will be a "temporary defeat" situation, where something will knock you down, usually people will give up at this stage, but they did not know that success is just around the corner, waiting for them if they did not give up. Just like playing pool, you will never know who will win at the end, opportunity will arise to those who did not give up, and those who stick up to challenges will win. 

As a closing, I would like to share one of the guidelines for confidence from a self-improvement book I read, and it says: 

Don't Strive for Perfection, Aim for Excellence