Connect-Four

I’ve spent a fair amount of time playing a little handheld connect-four game lately. It’s a pointless use of my time but for some reason I do get some satisfaction from beating the computer (even if it is set to the easy mode). Last night I had a nice little winning streak going. Just as I was feeling confident in my ability to keep winning, I made a really stupid mistake and the streak was over. It didn’t bother me that I had lost as much as it bothered me that I had overlooked something so obvious.

Why do I share this? Well, as I sat there thinking about it, I realized that the mistakes I make in life are usually very similar to this game. I’m usually astute enough to avoid the major pitfalls of life but many times, especially as I begin to feel confident with something, I’ll totally overlook the obvious.

So how can I keep from overlooking such things? That’s a good question considering that I’ve made that same simple mistake in the game multiple times now. It keeps me humble even on such a trivial level. Confidence is a good thing but I’m also beginning to see that it can also be a weakness.