Don’t hate the game:
Don’t hate the game.
Figure out what game you’re playing.
Understand it.
See it.
Learn from it.
We’re all playing a different game.
For some of us, it’s the money game.
Others the status game.
Some the materialism game.
Others the experience game.
Some the family game.
Others the work game.
All of us are playing a game.
But we often don’t think about which one.
Here’s how you do.
What are you optimizing for?
What is your grand goal in life?
Why do you get up in the morning and go to work?
Is it to earn money?
To achieve status?
To get your kids to respect you?
Why do you get up?
Once you’ve asked yourself this question, you begin to reflect on where you are.
Most of us go through life as zombies.
Moving from one place to the next often without thinking.
It’s school to job to marriage to kids to retirement to death.
That’s the game, right?
The ones our parents and society have convinced us we’re playing.
But, that doesn’t have to be the game.
It doesn’t have to be your game.
Your game can be different.
You can choose to optimize for anything you want.
If it’s storytelling, you can do that.
If it’s creating art, that’s an option too.
If it’s making an impact, go for it.
You can optimize for anything you want.
But, be careful what you optimize for.
Money is a fool’s errand.
You will never have enough if you optimize for that game.
Status is another one.
Someone will always be ahead of you.
Always.
By comparing yourself to those ahead, you’ll be miserable.
Saw a story on Twitter recently about a family worth 50 million dollars.
They lived in a multi-million dollar mansion.
Owned everything they ever wanted.
And yet, they were miserable.
Why?
Because they lived around people who earned double or triple them.
They had more expensive stuff.
The game of comparison robbed them of their happiness.
Be careful which game you play.
Because you may end up hating it.
But, we’re all playing a game.
Don’t hate the game.
Figure out which one you’re playing and which one you want to win.
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