As I watched my two daughters play the traditional Indian game of “Snakes and Ladders“I was realizing, with every step, that there was a striking similarity this game has to the journey of our life. There are so many lessons this game can teach us, including how to play the biggest game in our hands, that is to say “our own life”.
Let me give you some background on the game just for those unfortunate souls who did not have the pleasure of playing this classic game during their childhood years, and then I will share how I see this game from a life perspective and what I learn from. that.
About the game
Snakes and Ladders is a traditional Indian board game that is played in almost every home. Today, it is considered a world classic. The historical version of this game was designed to teach moral lessons to players and show the similarity of the game to life and its teachings. A player’s progression on the board from 1 to 100 represented the journey of a lifetime, while the snakes and ladders represented the vices and virtues along the journey.
Here is my take on learning this game. Some of these learnings were historically thought of the way they are documented here, while most of them are based on my own personal experience on life’s journey so far.
(1) Virtues and vices
The game has been interpreted and used as a tool to teach the effects of good deeds versus bad. Ladders represent virtues such as generosity, faith, and humility, while snakes represent vices such as lust, anger, murder, and theft. As in life, the game shows that the number of stairs will always be less than the number of snakes as a reminder that a path of good is much more difficult to travel than a path of sins. Despite this, stick to this,
(2) Life is dual
One of the biggest implicit in the game is the two immutable things, the duality of up and down, good and bad, Alpha and Omega, Day and night, etc. Life is not meant to be a one-sided affair. You will face both the good and the bad times. You will face ups and downs. Like ladders (climbs) and snakes (descents), you will find good and evil all around you and you will also do both right and wrong as you go through life’s beautiful journey. Life is dual. Accept it like that and you can live much happier. If things didn’t turn out your way today (you may have found more snakes), that’s part of the game. You have to stay focused and keep going. It is likely that he will soon seize a ladder. Keep moving.
(3) Identify your goal
The objective of the game is pre-identified for you. It is very clear that to win you have to reach 100. Those who have played the game will have noticed how focused we stay in the game to reach 100, despite getting any ladder or being bitten by a snake. Regardless of what is happening to our competitor in the game, we remain extremely focused to get to 100 defying all odds and without getting bogged down with snake bites.
This is exactly how the greatest game (life) is supposed to be lived. First, you must define your life goal before you leave your home to do anything else. This is the hardest thing for many people to do and most of us struggle to the end of our lives to find our life goal. I always advise my readers to stop doing everything else before finding their life purpose. Living a life without a definite purpose is like playing the Snakes and Ladders game without knowing that your mission is to reach 100. Everything you are doing in your life today is useless unless you have defined your life purpose.
If you are running hard in a vicious cycle and you are part of the so-called rat race, and you are not sure how you would find time to identify or pursue your true life goals, you can adapt a process that I adapted. A few years ago. First live to free yourself financially by doing what you are doing today. Post your financial freedom, you would have saved the time to your advantage and then you can really work towards your life goals. Make financial freedom one of your biggest ladders in this game of life to reach your ultimate goals or pursue your passions in life.
(4) Keep your focus on the goal
Once the purpose is defined, align all your daily actions with your life purpose. You need to keep your focus on that end goal and that will drive your daily actions to make sure they are aligned with the purpose. If you find things you do every day that are not aligned with your life purpose, start thinking and find ways to slowly eliminate them from your life.
(5) Be humble but never give up.
Don’t look down on people who are less fortunate than you. Everything you have with you today is temporary and can be destroyed in a split second. Be grateful for what you have. Likewise, when you fall down, don’t give up. Try again. Isn’t that exactly what you do when you crash the game? Just look ahead one more time with renewed energy and fight your way to the top. This is exactly how life is supposed to be lived. Never never never give up on life.
(6) Accept the result
Whatever the outcome (win or lose), accept it with grace. Don’t get too excited about your success and, on the other hand, don’t get discouraged in your failure. Everything is temporary and life is supposed to have a mixture of both. That is also sportsmanship. Make the loss a motivation, not an excuse not to play again. Turn your negative result into positive energy to fight back and rise to the top.
(7) Be patient
Patience is another virtue that we can learn from this game. You may be depressed and out. You may be the last in the lot, but if you are patient and continue to do the right thing, you will soon be amazed at how quickly life can bring you back, exactly as it does in this game. Therefore, be patient, keep doing the right thing, do not get distracted, angry or unmotivated. Life will take a turn … once again. Give it a try and continue on the right path.
(8) Keep moving
At the end of the day, it is not the number of ladders or snakes you face in your life that will determine your destiny. Has anyone won this game just because it has more stairs? No. Your future in the game of life is determined by one thing, and one thing only: “movement.” Always keep moving forward. Don’t stop at the foot of a snake and roll the dice. Keep moving. Get up again and keep moving. You may want to pause for a moment to recharge the batteries, or even cry a bit, but then keep moving again. Along the way, learn from your mistakes or misfortunes, until you reach the finish line as a seasoned victor.
(9) Enjoy life
This is the biggest lesson of all, according to me. Never be in too much of a rush to get to the end of the game. Enjoy the lucky breaks, but keep in mind that constant patches and snakes keep us from reaching the finish too quickly and add spice to our game. Enjoy your journey of this game, twists and turns, snakes and ladders alike. In the end, everyone will reach the ultimate goal, sooner or later. Be a good player, making the most of everything the trip has in store for you. Enjoy and cherish every moment of life.