Self fulfilling prophecy

Ever watch 'deal, no deal'?

It is on every day and I generally have it on as 'wallpaper' while doing 10 other things.

For the ones that haven't seen it... there are 21 (or so) boxes held by as many different people, each box showing an amount of money ranging between 1 penny and 250.000 pounds. One person (with 1 box) gets chosen to play the game. He needs to decide which boxes to open first and if an amount is chosen it gets taken of the playboard. Every 3 boxes the 'banker' calls in and gives on offer to buy the players box. Of course.. every player believes they by mere accident have a big amount in their box, in reality chances of getting one of the big prices are a lot slimmer!

So.. this guy gets chosen and the presenter does his interview with him and the guy says 'yeah, nothing in my life goes easy, everything is a struggle so this will not be different'. OOOOOKaayyyyyyyy I think... this guy is gonna screw it in a way he will NOT win any big price!

So.. on he went.. Choosing boxes like one does when playing this game and the banker never gave him anything good to go on at all, very low amounts of money so it was very easy for him to keep on saying 'no deal' and continue with the game.

Then finally.... he has only 6 boxes left, 3 low ones, 3 big ones (highest something like 50000) and oh joy, the banker calls and offers him 25000 pounds.

Now..Lets get this straight. You can buy 2 nice cars for 25000 or a flat in Greenock to let out. Or pay all your college debt. The guy said 'yeah I have my wife to consider and my 2 kids' so I thought 'phew, luckily I got it all wrong when I thought he wouldn't go for it'. 25000 pound is such a good offer, to gamble that with the odds so low would be so silly. So I sat back and relaxed ready to get this 'feel good' feeling I get when people are made very happy.

So, the guy asks the presenter, OK I'm ready, give me the question. So the presenter goes 'Deal or No Deal'? And the guy says NO DEAL!

NO DEAL!!

Are you out of your mind!? Are you absolutely barking mad?

Of course he went on thinking he could get richer than offered but it all turned to poo. I think he got something like 100 quid out of it in the end. And the presenter kept on saying 'do not judge the ones who are brave enough to go on'. Pfah!

I am judging him very much, even when I try not to, I can't help myself.

This is victimisation taken to a new level. Not only did he do a 'poor me' because life is such a hard struggle, he set HIMSELF up for another failure by not accepting what was there already for grabs. And I bet he said to everyone around him 'I am always unlucky, I will never be successful, I will never get what I really want'.

I have never seen a better example of always wanting what is beyond reach and not realising the potential of the present.

This was not about settling for less because you can't get more, this was about learning to stop looking at what might be and realising and appreciating what is already there.