Claw machines have always fascinated me. And whenever I see one, I have to walk up to it. The thrill of winning and all that.
But, before I play, I have to go through a checklist.
1. Is there a toy sitting on the top, where it can be grabbed without issue? It doesn’t matter what the toy is; we don’t get to choose these things when it comes to claw machines.
If there’s no toy sitting on top, I walk away. If there is, I move on to step two.
2. Is the claw strong enough to grab a toy, hold on to it, and bring it to the chute? At which point, the toy will be dropped into my excited, outstretched arms.
The only way to test step two is to wait for someone else to try the machine. Someone else who doesn’t have such a two-step checklist, of course.
After all, there’s nothing worse than experiencing the joy of the claw grappling onto your target, only for the claw to slip along the sides of the toy on its ascension. Like petting a kitten. Except without the smiles.
If something passes my checklist, then I’ll play.
I’ll insert my money. Then, I’ll do an X/Y check. Making sure the claw is positioned exactly above from the front view. And…this is key…exactly above from the side view.
I still have no idea why more people don’t check the claw from the side before pulling the trigger.
Most of the time my due diligence will pay off and I will leave the game the happy owner of a future Goodwill donation.
But when it doesn’t work, I will try again. And again and again.
This is where the problems occur. Because with every drained dollar, I’ll think that perhaps this time, things will work out as I planned. But, most of the time, I just end up wasting more dollars. The claw machine still wins, despite my meticulous planning.
And so it goes with our projects. Music or otherwise.
Sometimes, despite our best planning, it’s just not the right time. Maybe the project requires a little more skill building first. Maybe we’ve gotten tired of it.
But, when we keep working on something that’s not taking off and isn’t fun anymore, that’s where we get stuck.
And that’s when we need to know it’s time to end this project and find something new and exciting.
Otherwise, we lose a lot of time or money, and we still don’t have a prize to take home.