How a Childhood Game Taught Us to Wait Our Turn— And Why That’s a Terrible Lesson
I had a flashback the other day to elementary school and a game we used to play called, Heads Down — Thumbs Up.
Picture a classroom of 10-year-olds sitting in neat rows. The lights are off and five students selected by the teacher are standing at the front of the classroom. The rest of the children are told, “Okay, everyone put your heads down and your thumbs up.”
The five chosen ones are tasked with secretly selecting a student by pushing their thumb down and returning to stand at the front of the class. The classroom is dark and quiet as students patiently wait to be picked. The chosen tiptoe around in the dark, pushing thumbs down, relishing in their little taste of power.
Once the chosen have returned to the front, the teacher asks the students whose thumbs were pressed down to guess who was responsible for picking them. The rest of the students who were not chosen sit silently until told to put their heads down again for the next round.
I wonder how many of us still have our heads down on the desk waiting to be chosen.
Too many of us spend our entire lives waiting to be chosen. We keep our heads down, work hard and hope to be noticed. We follow the well-trodden path, doing what we are told, and lose ourselves little by little to the monotony of day-to-day life. We keep hoping that if we play by the rules and wait our turn, that our time to shine will come.
If we wait to be given opportunity, we will be waiting a long time. We must seek out opportunity. We must take deliberate action to achieve the results we want. Those who achieve great success define what they want and create a plan to get it.
Napoleon Hill says, “When you control your own mind, you will never be controlled by another.”
Your mind is your most valuable possession. When you take control of your mind, you take control of your life. If you are dissatisfied with where you are you need to ask yourself: What am I waiting for? Why am I waiting?
Whatever success looks like to you, be it personal, professional, financial, or spiritual, it is your responsibility to make it happen. It will never happen if you keep your head down and wait to be chosen.
Stop playing that stupid game. Raise your head. Stand up and turn on the light. Make things happen.
What are you waiting for? Why are you waiting?
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Hey there, I’m a confidence coach helping stressed-out people pleasers clarify personal priorities, create healthy boundaries, and say NO with confidence. If you like this, you can grab my most popular free resource, The People Pleaser’s Toolkit, and read more helpful posts at: www.naomiyaw.com.
