Be like a duck... but don't fret if it doesn't work out

If there’s one lesson I’ve learned in my lifetime, it’s that things may not always work out the way you would like. In fact, it can be a rarity that things actually do work out the way you think they should, and more often than not, it takes a lot of tough behind-the-scenes work.

I recently came up with what I considered a long-term plan to reach a goal that was important to me. Through a few weeks, everything was going “according to plan,” you could say. Up until recently, when the plan basically came to a screeching halt, which, as you can probably imagine, is a bit upsetting. It would be easy for me to get down and feel sorry about it, blah, blah, but I had to look at history and simply say, things happen for a reason, and go from there. I know that throughout my lifetime, this has happened on many more than one occasion.

My parents have always told me that hard work pays off. A friend once told me to always be like a duck: cool, calm and collected on the surface, but paddle like hell underneath. I took both pieces of advice to heart and have really tried to be like the duck.

I don’t usually touch subjects like what I’m about to say, but they say the Lord works in mysterious ways, and I believe it’s true. There have been plenty of times in my life when my plan didn’t work out, only to find out later that God had a much better plan for me.

For the first 18 years of my life, I practiced every day and thought I was going to be a professional baseball player. It was my plan. I ate, slept and breathed baseball. I lived it. But as soon as I got to college, for some reason the rigors of the sport just didn’t appeal to me and I decided not to play anymore. To this day I wonder about that decision, but I’m comfortable with it.

In economics, they teach you a very important concept known as “opportunity cost.” But it’s much more than just an economic concept. The idea is that basically, everything you do costs you something, whether it’s money, time or experience. For instance, if you’re faced with a decision of watching TV or going out with friends, and you choose to go out with friends, the opportunity cost of that decision was the TV program you missed. Every decision you make has an opportunity cost or consequence.

There is so much I would have missed if I had chosen to pursue baseball. During that time, I really came into my own as a person and found out who I was. Some people find this out sooner than I did, but when you dedicate so much of your life to one thing, it begins to define you. So for me, separation from the sport helped me redefine myself. And in this case, the opportunity cost of becoming me was very small, and for that I can honestly say deciding not to play baseball anymore happened for a reason, although I didn’t see it so clearly at the time.

Regardless of what happens to you in your lifetime, you have to keep in mind that when one door closes, another one usually opens up. You may have to search for it and it may take some time to find, but as long as you keep your eyes open, things will usually work out. It’s a comforting viewpoint to have, and it’s basically the same principal as believing in a religion that cannot be proven. It’s about faith – faith that if you work hard for what you believe in and what you want, things will work out in your favor.

But as you work, keep in mind that it doesn’t matter who you are, what kind of job you have, how much money you make or what you look like, some things just aren’t meant to be. And on the flip side, if it is meant to be, then there’s no need to worry.