Winning the Game of Life

I've got a good friend who loves board games.

He's been playing them his whole life, and he's literally got dozens and dozens stacked tall on shelves and stuffed tight in a small room within his basement. And there aren't many things he enjoys more than having people over for a long night of fun.

So not long ago I found myself heading over his house for an evening of entertainment with another friend, and together we delved into the (surprisingly engaging) game Terra Mystica.

Needless to say, my board-game loving friend demolished us both. But we all had a great time hanging out making each other laugh.

Then the day after, something happened that got me thinking.

A few times a week I workout with the friend with whom I went there, and at the gym he went on a rant about statistical analysis of various elements of Terra Mystica. After getting crushed at the game he immediately and instinctively went home and started doing research online, searching for experienced opinions on the best races, the best build orders, and the win statistics for various strategies.

In short, he had a single bad experience then immediately endeavored towards ensuring he'd have the best chance of winning that game going forward. He reacted immediately to that unwanted situation, modified his behavior, and armed himself with the knowledge he'd need to have the best chance of prevailing in the future.

That's hardly an uncommon thing. Everyone wants the best possible chance at victory. And whether the venue is a board game, a video game, a traditional sport, or anything else, people often grow obsessive about learning and exploiting and mastering the particularities and nuances of their chosen craft.

After losing that one time, my friend instantly devoted himself towards mastering that game. He went home and started investing the time and energy necessary towards preparing for a pretty uncommon scenario. I mean, we play board games very infrequently. And only a very small percentage of people play (or have heard of) Terra Mystica.

Yet still he did it. And still he's continuing to do it.

And still, countless others are expending themselves fully towards mastering activities equally niche--expending their lives on mastering the nuances of particularized games that fractional percentages of the world play.

But how many of us are putting that much time and effort towards dominating the game we all play in common--the lone activity in which we engage without pause or fail?

How many of us are immediately and consistently putting in the necessary work towards mastering life itself?

Put like that, it's a no-brainer. Because every second of every day we're invested fully and bodily in this game of life--so it stands to reason that we should be most concerned with understanding every aspect of its rules and planning our strategies fully towards prevailing before death arrives and unplugs us from this virtual reality program.

The only problem is that very few people can agree on what the success conditions for life entail. Some believe it involves accumulating the most amount of money, some believe it entails conquering and controlling the most amount of land and resources.

Others still have wilder ideas--more niche ideas like my friend, who put his efforts towards becoming the best Terra Mystica player he could be.

All of these are valid constructs for measuring the victory conditions of life. And the society in which we live often determines unto which supposed ruleset we adhere.

Those living in capitalistic countries will subscribe unto money as a metric. Those who're born into or devote themselves unto warmongering cultures will seek towards conquering and controlling as a surrogate for points on the scoreboard of corporeal reality.

But when analyzed under a meta-lens, all but one amongst the vast cornucopia of possible victory conditions for life fail under scrutiny.

Because money you need forgo at the moment of corporeal death. Land and people you can't control from the other world.

All that comes with you from life unto life is your spirit. Therefore the safest and surest investment and most prudent use of your resources in this reality involves putting much power as possible towards polishing and refining that most intrinsic and essential part of yourself.

If you want the greatest possible return on investment for your efforts, put those efforts towards honing and perfecting the only element of your being that'll be accompanying you between lives.

Don't fixate on money. Don't grow fascinated with control and conquest.

Put the bulk of your time and energy towards developing and improving yourself.

Devote this life towards learning and perfecting higher virtues like selflessness, compassion, empathy, understanding, and love. Work tirelessly towards delivering as much joy and happiness and works of benevolent creation into this realm as you can.

Don't stop having hobbies. Don't stop playing games.

But start putting the vast majority of your thoughts towards mastering the only game that matters: Life.

And do it by pursuing the only victory condition that withstands a serious bout of philosophical scrutiny: Perfecting yourself.

You have roughly seventy-five years or so in this body, this life, this existence and world. Then you'll be speeding off again into the other world.

And there your spirit guides won't tally up your score in dollars. They won't care about how much of this world you brought under your control.

They'll simply look at the only part of you that remains--your spirit--then ascertaining how far it progressed during this incarnation you'll get praised or consoled as required. And you'll be rewarded in direct proportion unto how much progress you made. Your spirit guides will examine how well you avoided the incessant distractions within the realm so you could focus on what truly matters: refining the self.

So for sure play games. For sure have hobbies.

But for all those pasttimes in which you engage, focus a little upon the concept of return on investment. Pay attention unto what you're getting back for your participation. Then devote yourself the bulk of your resources towards those things that provide the greatest dividends going forward.

Master the intricacies of Terra Mystica and you'll benefit roughly once a fortnight during our little parties. Once every few weeks you'll come out from those gatherings glowing and sparkling with a feeling of pride knowing you prevailed in that game for several brief hours.

But master the intricacies of yourself--put the bulk of your efforts towards winning this game we're all playing in common--and you'll emerge from this reality with a sense of satisfaction that lasts from now throughout the great forever.

Because it'll be your spirit that's glowing and sparkling bright. And the pride you'll feel will last for much longer.

Then, instead of knowing you did your best towards conquering a board game, you can walk away a real hero knowing you dominated the game of life.

This life is a game most assuredly; that you realize it is awesome.

a reply to: Trachel

and at the gym he went on a rant about statistical analysis of various elements of Terra Mystica.

Is this the usual banter between you two at the gym?

I don't mean to make light of it but I just got a funny image of two swoll guys lifting weights while ranting about board game strategies. Lol.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
a reply to: Trachel

and at the gym he went on a rant about statistical analysis of various elements of Terra Mystica.

Is this the usual banter between you two at the gym?

I don't mean to make light of it but I just got a funny image of two swoll guys lifting weights while ranting about board game strategies. Lol.

Is it a board game (not virtual) make a good X-mas gift? I need to know more.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
a reply to: Trachel

and at the gym he went on a rant about statistical analysis of various elements of Terra Mystica.

Is this the usual banter between you two at the gym?

I don't mean to make light of it but I just got a funny image of two swoll guys lifting weights while ranting about board game strategies. Lol.

Hahaha, actually yeah--guilty as charged.

Between sets we usually talk games and metaphysics and life. But neither of us is swoll --I'm a rock-climber and he's just getting into the sport.

a reply to: Trachel

Interesting read, I enjoyed your analogy. My thoughts in no certain order.

Life is not a game. Your analogy is certainly valid, but like all analogies, it falls short. To me a game implies winners and losers. If there isn't a winner or a loser, then it's just practice.

To win or to lose, implies a certain set of preset rules on how the game is played and how one wins or loses. Everyone abides by the rules as the game is played. Life has no such set of rules that everyone agrees upon. One would think "the natural law" is the set of rules, but as we all know, that common sense view has been tossed out by a large number of the players. So what is winning exactly? What is losing?

The question that invariably gets raised is this: how is THE BEST way to live ones' life? This question has been raised by most every human that has walked the face of the earth, at some point in their lives. It's a question we all should ask ourselves. Is there a model? I think there is., but that's that's not the topic of this thread.

We know there are bad ways to live a life. We know there are good ways to live a life, we've all seen examples. But, the question remains, how is THE BEST way to live a life? The relativists among us would say that there IS no best way, it's up to the individual. I think this is nonsense. The game needs rules. Too many folks live their lives like there are no rules, that we make them up as we go along, or change them as our feelings change.

Relativism is evil. The game needs rules.

a reply to: Ignatian

Great reply! So great in fact that I've little to add except:

I (obviously) believe the best way to live a life is to maximize your spiritual development along that timespan. That means overriding biological and neurological impulses at every possible turn to remake yourself into the kindest, most compassionate, most joyful, most loving person possible.

That, I believe, is the win of life.

And that, I believe, is why we're all here--mastering the integral skillsets necessary towards perfecting ourselves in a wildly imperfect environment.

originally posted by: Trachel

I (obviously) believe the best way to live a life is to maximize your spiritual development along that timespan. That means overriding biological and neurological impulses at every possible turn to remake yourself into the kindest, most compassionate, most joyful, most loving person possible.

In other words, turning into the "perfect" façade. A "heavenly" society of hypocrites surely will appreciate that.

a reply to: Trachel

You and I agree....
"...overriding impulses at every turn to remake yourself into the kindest, most compassionate, most joyful, most loving person possible"....

You've nailed it, that's winning the game.

The next question is...."how is this done?"

"Overriding impulses". You've answered our question for us.

We must set aside our impulsive desires sometimes, in order to become that absolute best version of ourselves. We all know deep inside there is a BEST version of ourselves. That's the goal-line. The end-zone. We all know, that we can all fall very short of that on any given day however. To win? is to Be the best version of ourselves.....daily.

We die to ourselves, delay gratification and instead, live for others. Love our neighbor, it's that simple.

Stick to this plan, and you'll always be on the winning team.

a reply to: Trachel

"Perfecting ourselves in a wildly imperfect environment"

I believe we can change this imperfect environment....one person at a time. And i believe it starts with ourselves. Being the best version of ourselves.

If more people lived that life, tried daily to become their best version...we would change the world.

originally posted by: Ignatian
a reply to: Trachel

"Perfecting ourselves in a wildly imperfect environment"

I believe we can change this imperfect environment....one person at a time. And i believe it starts with ourselves. Being the best version of ourselves.

If more people lived that life, tried daily to become their best version...we would change the world.

Agree completely, and I believe that's the celestial plan unfolding around us now. We are perfecting ourselves slowly and earth is receiving many more near-perfected spirits incarnating here to help that process unfold.

Times are changing... and for once they're changing for the better.

Cheers!