The Finale

At our local convenience store recently, I went to the lottery machine to get some scratcher tickets for our family to play (when we go on vacation the scratcher tickets are a small tradition for us). If you have done the lottery thing before you know that there is a bar code on every ticket that can be scanned to see if that ticket is a winner or not. This is where an odd occurrence took place.

The gentleman in front of me bought a $20 ticket which is one of the more expensive ones that is offered. He then scratched off the bar code and had the machine scan it to see if it was a winner. He didn’t actually play the game on the card, he just skipped ahead to the end. He wanted to know right away if he was a winner, without even going through the fun part of the process which is to scratch off each portion of the ticket. Having never seen this happen before, it got me thinking…..

Are there areas in our work or in our daily lives that we “skip ahead” so to speak?

Do we bypass the important part of the journey to rush to the end?

Do we ever go to the back of the book to see how the plot plays out?

Have we fast forwarded a movie to find out who done it?

Are we impatient watching a sporting event because we just want to see the final score?

Not sure anyone would say these are common practices in life, however if someone does scratch the proverbial bar code before the game is actually played, they are missing the best part. The journey itself is the most valuable asset in our lives. We learn from the experiences of going from point A to point B. Life’s walk today helps shape how we do things in the future.

Skipping ahead devalues the wins and losses that eventually lead us to the successes we experience in the end game. Both personally and professionally.

Would I like to look into the future and see how my life plays out? Sure. Would it be beneficial to see what tomorrow looks like for our son Brock so we could course correct now, kind of Back to the Future style? Of course. However, it’s experiencing the journey that fulfills us, not jumping ahead to the finale.

Enjoy where you are today. Treat each new day as a present, one that is to be unwrapped and experienced before you move on to tomorrow. The future will be here before you know it. No need for a fast forward button.