Just a little light on that target

I like to play games with household chores and mundane tasks. How many dance songs do I need to dust the downstairs; how many window sills can I do before I am totally bored out of my mind; and how many perfect shots into the recycling bin can I make in any given day? I love that game!! Sometimes I put an extra can of beans in my chili, just so I have one more shot at that rim.

I’m proud of my record with that recycling bin. There’s nothing like the sound of that “BANG” when the mark is hit. Ok, I realize the bin circumference is 3 times the size of a basketball rim, but no matter…this little victory is mine and I’m taking it.

As you can tell, I was getting a bit too confident and one day began shooting in the dark. No light switch needed for me. I had my hands full of cereal boxes, empty cans of black beans, and milk cartons.

I figured I could do this with my eyes closed, so I just pitched in the dark.

Zing! Tang! Walla, Walla, Bing-Bang! And…”She scores!”

Or so I thought! The next day I was all cleaned up with somewhere to go, opened the garage door, ready to roll and what do I see on the way to my Honda, but a Zing, a Tang, and a big, old Walla, splayed all over the garage floor in a big, bang mess! My Honda’s hood was sporting a Ritz cracker box, at least 2 feet from the target.

Turns out I needed some light on that target after all!

You know what’s next. All of this reminded me of bigger things in life, the ones with important targets; the ones that move us forward into the places we want to go and the people we want to be.

It doesn’t take a Certified Organizational Planner to know you need to be able to see what you are aiming for in order to make the mark. You have to know where you are going if you want to actually end up there. There’s nothing new in all of this. Thoreau said long ago, “In the long run, we only hit what we aim at.” But sometimes we need reminders. Sometimes we miss the mark simply because we don’t know where it really is. Sometimes we operate in the dark. And sometimes we get overly confident and skip vital steps, figurative and literal. Keep your eyes focused on the big things in life and watch your steps.

And for best results, shine a little light on that target!