I’ve come to realize that life isn’t about how much we accumulate or our job title; it is about the difference we make.
Life is Like a Board Game
Get From Here to the There – Life is about what we do from here to there; it is the journey. Obviously, I am not the first one to write about this.
I started to think of life like a board game, the joy comes in playing the game and the choices we make while playing. I realize there is an actual board game named Life, work with me here.
A Few Rules
The rules are simple – get from one side to the other. Along the way, every player will receive challenges. And no matter what, you play until you get to the end. How you define the other side, the end, is definitely dependent on how you were raised and your beliefs.
One interesting point worth making, in an actual game we find challenges fun. But yet in life, they aren’t always so fun. We expect them in a game, but in life they can feel like we are being punished or that we are less fortunate than others. But remember, we don’t see the whole challenge in others’ lives, the reality behind the curtain. If we had an inside view of others’ lives, the challenges in their lives would be just as messy and unwelcome as we often feel about ours.
Three Truths that Apply to Everyone
Time is finite and yet unknown. None of us know how long we have to complete the journey. Time is the one asset we can’t accumulate and we never know how much is left.
Life will come to an end. Regardless of the energy we put into wandering, the end will come. There is no argument for living life “later”.
Life is never fair when we look at it from only our perspective. Someone else will always appear to have more, appear to have it easier. The reality is we honestly don’t know if someone does or doesn’t. We make these assumptions with very little knowledge or input from the other. Our thoughts are only one perspective of an uncountable number of perspectives out there.
5 Strategies For Getting the Most Out of Life
Play with purpose, every second of every minute. Know why we are here and put that into the world. Live with passion in all we do. Share our gifts and strengths with everyone we encounter.
Play hard. We don’t get time back and we can’t buy more time. We simply don’t know how much time is left. Play hard, love hard, give hard. Leave it all behind.
Don’t compare lives. Take the life given and play our game. Use our unique strengths, loves, and yes – challenges. A board game would be so boring if there were no challenges; they are expected. Some challenges we face in our lives are awful and tragic. It is hard to wrap our minds around the hurt sometimes. But we mustn’t compare lives, life is tough at times for everyone. Instead of comparing, just assume everyone needs our love and kindness. We will be better for it.
Help others along the way, as many as we can. Don’t be the challenge in someone else’s board game. Do you want to be a ladder helping someone or the slide that causes someone to slide backwards (think CandyLand)? Choose to be the ladder, offer help to those in need. Find joy in knowing we helped others on their journey. If people don’t want us, walk away.
Influence as Many as Possible
Life is a team game; the journey is not meant to be done in isolation! We are interdependent and need one another. I believe every strength is connected to a weakness. Which means, I should try to spend as much time in my areas of strength and surround myself with people who complement my weaknesses. People who are different than me are a blessing, a gift, the helpful advantage along the journey. Not allowing people who complement our weaknesses into our lives is like losing a board game because we stubbornly decided not to use the blessings of drawing the “get out of jail free card”, or taking the free parking money when we land on it, or not rolling again when we roll doubles. We are here to serve and love one another, love so passionately and uniquely us.
Progressing through the Game of Our Life
Along the way, we choose to use our uniquely given gifts and talents for good or for bad – to help others or to harm others. Everything we do has consequences. Why not intentionally choose to make this world a better place, with purpose and passion? We all put energy into the world, with everything we say and do. What energy do we want to put into the world? There is no justification for being mean to others. That is only an indication of our character. Be the ladder always or be nothing, but never choose to be the slide to someone else.
Life is so much more joy filled when life has meaning; when we have a purpose.
We spend so much time trying to be happy and in the end, serving others is what life is really all about. Get to the end and take as many people with you. Go!
With Purpose,
Kelly