ARE YOU SNIPE HUNTING?
Growing up in the country, you learn lots of valuable lessons. You learn that when siphoning gas from the tank of one broke down motorcycle to another, your timing has to be just right or else you will swallow gasoline (not pleasant). You learn how to pick rocks for endless hours in fields that will most assuredly produce thousands more by tomorrow. It’s a wonderful way to grow up.
Most likely if you grew up in the country at some point you learned how to hunt for Snipes. Snipes are wily creatures. They are fast, smart, and very hard to catch. In fact, there is a very particular way to catch a snipe. You need a stick and a gunnysack, and you have to go out deep into the woods and find a good trail. As you go, you have to bang the stick on the brush and yell “Here Snipe, Here Snipe.” Once you find a good trail, you put the bag down and wait until the snipe runs into the bag. There is one huge problem with snipe hunting… there is no such thing as a snipe. It’s a fantastic prank to play on people when you are young, but at the end of the day you are chasing something that doesn’t exist.
What if I were to say that you may be Snipe hunting your life away?
Have you ever met someone who year after year after year is “waiting for their ship to come in”? Or “Waiting for a sign”? Or “waiting for just the right time”? Or…. They are not actively moving towards a target or a direction, but mystically floating and doing nothing. This ends up being a very sensitive subject because people usually feel very justified in getting ready to get ready, but the challenge is that no matter how long you spend in the woods with a bag and a stick, the snipe is not coming.
To be sure, there is a distinct difference in pursuing a dream that is a long time coming and what I am talking about. The person that is in pursuit of the dream is walking up and down the beach of life, looking far into the distance for their ship, and every day training to make sure they can swim what ever distance it takes to get to that ship. The snipe hunter is doing something very different. He stands on the beach, tells people that his ship will be coming in. He describes the ship in great detail and knows that when it comes in it will have confetti and flags waving for him to come on board. He neither trains to swim nor caries a life jacket because he is not anticipating a swim, but a long, long wait.
If this offends you, it may describe you. If it does, I’m glad you are reading it. Now, are you ready to get to action? Here are a couple helpful tips to get things moving.
1.) Take the time to set a plan that has time limitations and is measurable. If you never start, you never have to fail. The problem is that if you never fail, you have probably never attempted something truly great. Write down “From A to B by when” goals. Be specific, and then break it down from what needs to be done this year, month, week and day. Get to it!
2.) Shed the fear of running in the wrong direction. It is much easier to change the direction of a moving object than it is to get one moving. How hard is it to steer your car around a corner vs. starting at a stop light? Stop talking about doing it and just do it.
3.) Your Value is not tied to a perfect action or destination. Your value is in BEING. If you head out in a direction and it is wrong, you are still you. Your value is in you as a person, not succeeding or failing at something. Dust yourself off, try again. If you don’t try and get to action you will live and die with regret.
You don’t get forever on this Earth. Honor the fact you have breath and get to action.
