Pass it to me
Nobody Tells You
It is likely that you have already determined that there is no real instruction manual to life. Post childhood, you absentmindedly start to make up quasi-rules that are mostly based on what happened to you that you didn’t like too much. This is mainly based on self-determined outcomes that weren’t pleasant. Nobody meets you outside of the local Walmart with a manual that will help you make the best choices. Nobody tells you what to do because nobody really knows. And the only way you get to know is by self-choice. Life sucks as a game sometimes.
End Game
Please excuse the sports metaphors. Life is not always played to win. Save that for your home team. Life has methods meant to satisfy the majority of us. If you played Monopoly when you were young, always chose to be the banker and stole money every game and won, that was your way of making sure that you had the advantage. If you owned a sports team, wouldn’t you buy up every great player and put them on your team to win every week? It wouldn’t work, but it would be super fun to watch and listen to the pundits talk about what a waste of money you had made. When you set up the game, you do so in order to play a finite game. You play to win.
Other End Game
The other way to play life is to play infinitely. This is the way made up for those of us without endless funds. Playing life as though you don’t know the outcome until the end opens up all of the possibilities. Even routine events might change the board. Weather comes into play more often than you might think. There is much more passing. This is when you just hold onto the ball until you choose or are forced to throw the damn thing. There are fumbles and painful tackles. The randomness can be lovely if it works or force a time out if the pass was intercepted. You just didn’t know what would happen.
Skeleton Key
When you can determine what kind of life you want, look for your rules and place them in your manual. Having your own playbook lets you know how to move forward with life questions. It can eliminate pesky topics like where to go to dinner (choose the second option) or it can make you look like a badass who has values because you won’t cave in or it could make others think you are a prickly genius who doesn’t listen. Your manual is really your journal this year. You have been steadily entering new details in there that are self-determining. They will become your own special skeleton key. Few of us can resist the lure of a special key that looks a little spooky but opens up the most exciting doors. There was a time when diaries provided a secret way of keeping our thoughts. Now it is journals. Writing down your own rules is like magic. It adds a seriousness to the way you make your choices. And it keeps others wondering what it is exactly that makes you so special that you have figured out the game of life.
Are you more of a player or one who has been played? Are you interested in changing your own game?
