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There are times when things don’t turn out the way you pictured.
At school, at work, with friends, with someone you love — the night your words didn’t reach.
The morning you tried to say it, and you missed each other.
The day you tried hard, and nothing came of it.
You never meant to hurt anyone.
But that is how it turned out.
Things like that happen, again and again, in a life.
And each time, you blame yourself, just a little.
The endless gap between intention and result
In your head, you can picture it perfectly.
Say it like this, and they’ll understand.
Do it like this, and it will work.
Follow these steps, and you’re sure to get there —
But in reality, more often than not, it doesn’t go that way.
You couldn’t speak well in the meeting.
At the moment that mattered, the words caught in your throat.
You should have handled it better — there is a walk home where you think such things, alone.
It is the same in pool.
Balls roll where you meant them to less often than you’d think.
Miss your tip position by a hair, and the cue ball rolls somewhere else entirely.
What you thought you had perfectly calculated falls apart on the slightest touch of a cushion.
But it isn’t only you.
It is the same for the pros.
Between intention and result, there is always a gap.
And how you face that gap — perhaps that is what is being asked of you.
Before a broken layout
There are moments when you stand before a broken layout.
You take in the reality that didn’t go your way, just as it is.
Make excuses, and the layout doesn’t change.
Blame someone, and the cue ball stays where it is.
You simply think about the next move from where things stand.
That is recovery.
It is not the ideal layout.
But from the reality here and now, you look for what you can do.
In fact, within an unexpected layout, you sometimes find an unexpected move.
A broken layout may not be the end, but the next beginning.
Isn’t life sometimes like that, too?
Every failure adds depth
The longer people have played pool, the more they talk about their failures.
If only I’d done it differently then.
That shot still stings.
I ran from that layout —
The stories that didn’t go well, more than the ones that did, let you feel a person’s depth.
Surely life is the same.
Someone who stumbled again and again, and got up each time, somehow has more flavor than someone whose sailing was always smooth.
Their words carry weight.
In their eyes, something quiet dwells.
Perhaps failure is nothing to be ashamed of.
If anything, every failure becomes part of a person’s depth.
You go to sleep still holding that night’s frustration.
And the next day, you take up the cue again.
Standing at the table again
On the night of a day that didn’t go as hoped, there are people who head back to the table.
Because it stung.
Because they want another try.
Or simply because they want to be there — everyone has their reason.
But that one step gives rise to the next ball.
It doesn’t go where you aim.
Still, you shoot again.
In that repetition, I sense something that pool and life share.
👉 An intelligent way to spend the weekend. — 14.1 is a game that resembles life.
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