Ping Pong Ball Collecting: Funny or Futile?

I recently viewed a short 20-second video on line that gave me pause.  At first glance it's a funny little short with a toddler gathering ping-pong balls and placing them in his cup with his chubby little hand.  Each time he bends to retrieve a ball, another ball he has previously placed in the cup falls out, hits his shoe and rolls away.  He toddles to the fallen ball, bends to capture it and out pops another ball. This repeats a couple times until,  becoming frustrated, he throws a temper tantrum and  tosses the cup and all of the balls onto the deck. Someone titled it, "My life summed up in 20-seconds." 

What I started watching as a funny little snippet turned quickly into a statement of futility as my initial uplifting thought of "always chasing the dream," was quickly replaced with darker thoughts of, "No matter how hard I try, I can never get ahead,"  "Nothing I do is ever good enough," and, "One step forward, two steps back."

Then I wondered why  the adult was videotaping the toddler rather than teaching him to put the cup on the deck and bring the balls to it. Or cover the opening with his hand when he bent over. Or trying any number of possible solutions to his delemia. Why didn't they teach him to think outside the box--or in this case, the cup? 


Surely this video has some redeeming quality.  Of course it does.  It actually has several truths for me hidden in it.  So what can I take away from this video?  At least four lessons (and that's with little or no analysis).

First, sometimes clutching the dream too tightly can kill it--sometimes you have to put the cup  down in order to capture, and hang on to whatever you are seeking--whether it be a dream, a prize, a goal, or a ping-pong ball.   It may seem like you are giving up, when in fact you are merely regrouping.

Second, throwing a tantrum and giving up because achieving the dream takes dillegent effort, is never going to make you successful.  Success always takes a lot of hard work.  And there almost always will be what appear to be failures or setbacks along the way. The only times you actually fail are when you allow the frustrations and failures to define you--or you  give up and just don't try.

Third, if you see, or know, a better, or different, way to do something, and it causes no harm, by all means try it--or help someone else try it.  You might actually find the solution--or lessen someone else's frustration level.

Finally, surround yourself with dreamers, cheerleaders, teachers, and inventors-people who will encourage you, uplift you,  and open your eyes to new possibilities--avoid people who videotape your frustrations  and failures just so they can post it online or enter it in a contest.

And a bonus:  don't play with ping-pong balls if there's a camera or smartphone around--unless of course you are Yan Weihao, Ping Pong World Champion (2017).