Play games you can win.

I gave my almost 6-year-old Jack $1 so he could play a new supermarket lobby grab machine game. He had his eyes on a stuffy and started off with a confident sparkle in his eye.

First try: the grab machine barely even gripped the stuffy and slid right over its head. No win.

Second try: Jack convinced me to pony up another $1 for another try. Different stuffy, but same result. No win.

Third and fourth try: no matter how perfectly Jack “grabbed” the stuffy, the claw would not actually grip. No wins. 

Jack wanted to keep playing. He believed that if he tried just one more way or one more time, maybe he could win something. He was in the game, invested.

The lesson though for Jack, and for all of us, is to recognize when we’re playing a game we can’t win. Whether it’s one of those grab machine games you can’t beat, or something more significant like a job, a project, or a relationship that’s just not working: we may realize that no matter how long we’ve been playing, how much we’ve invested, or how much we want that thing, that’s it’s a losing game and it's taking more than its giving. It’s important to know when to move on or shift perspective. 

Play games you can win.