Just Put Another Quarter In

Just put another quarter in... when we play a video game at an arcade we play until we run of energy, when we “lose a life”. What happens after that? Typically, you pop back up in the same place and keep going until you run out of your energy or again, lose another life. Eventually you run out of lives. Then what? Then we pop in another quarter into that machine and pick up the game right where we left off! 3 more lives and a full energy bar.

Life should be looked at in quite the same way. We get up every day and go about our daily tasks, in a sense, using up our energy bars. We deal with our priorities, our family, our job, our hobbies, our friends. Each one of these “things” uses up just a little bit of energy and eventually wears you down to the point that you “lose a life”. We get back up the next day and we do it all over again, ”respawning” the next morning with a brand-new life and a full bar of energy.

What happens in real life when you run out of lives though? You’ve simply got to put another quarter in! What that means particularly will be different for each of us, but what I personally mean is that we each need to reset and recharge. You just need to figure out what your “currency”. is. What makes you feel alive? What makes you let everything else go for just a few moments? What sets you completely free? That, my friends, is your currency. That is your quarter.

For me, it’s a day in the woods. Enjoying the sounds of the birds, the rush of a running river. Taking in the earthy smells of the forest, the crunch of leaves beneath my feet and soaking in all the spectacular views you might see on any given day when taking a quiet stroll through the woods. This is my currency. When I run out of lives, I take a couple hours and get out into the woods, get out into nature. This allows me to clear my head and refocus on what truly needs focusing on so I can get to the “next level”.

When life starts to feel as if it’s more like a job then it is like a true life, just take a step back. Figure out what your currency is, and put another quarter in.

This post was inspired by a caption found on Instagram,written by “TheHoodCraftsman”.

“Failure is a fear for most people. Some years ago, I was at Barcade in NYC with my cousins. This was before my weight-loss journey and before I had embarked on any EDC or designer path. I was still figuring things out, but I felt a bit defeated. I lost in the arcade, and just as I had given up on the game, my cousin came in with some of the best advice. He said, "No matter how many times you lose, you keep playing until you win. And if you run out of lives, just put another quarter in the machine, you get another chance. Just don't waste those chances you get." That hit me and it's something that I'll never forget. “