As I watched my two daughters play the traditional Indian game of “Snakes and Ladders“I realized, at every turn, that there was a striking similarity this game has to our life’s journey. There are so many lessons this game can teach us, including how to run the biggest game in our hands, that is , “our own life”.
Let me give you some background on the game just for those unlucky 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 the perspective of life and what I learn from it.
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 players moral lessons and show the game’s similarity 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 meant to be historical in the way they are documented here, while most of them are based on my own personal experience in life’s journey thus far.
(1) Virtues and vices
The game has been interpreted and used as a tool to teach the effects of good actions versus bad ones. The ladders represent virtues such as generosity, faith, and humility, while the snakes represent vices such as lust, anger, murder, and theft. As in life, the game shows that the number of ladders 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 sin. Despite this, stick to this,
(2) Life is dual
One of the biggest implicits in the game is the immutable duality of things, the duality of up and down, good and evil, 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. Just like ladders (going up) and snakes (going down), you will meet good and evil all around you and you will also do the right and wrong things as you go on the beautiful journey of life. Life is dual. Accept it like this and you can live much happier. If today, things didn’t go as you expected (you may have encountered more snakes), that’s part of the game. You must maintain focus and move on. It is likely that you will soon get a ladder. Keep moving.
(3) Identify your Goal
The goal in 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 realized how focused we are on the game to reach 100, despite falling down a ladder or being bitten by a snake . Regardless of what happens to our competitor in the game, we continue to be extremely focused on getting to 100 defying all odds and not getting bogged down by snake bites.
This is exactly how the biggest game (life) is supposed to be lived. First, you need to define your life goal before you leave your house to do anything else. This is the hardest thing for many people and most of us struggle until the end of our lives to find our life goal. I always advise my readers to stop doing everything else before they have found their life purpose. Living a life without a defined purpose is like playing the game of snakes and ladders 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’re running hard in a vicious cycle and part of the so-called rat race, and you’re not sure how you’d find the time to identify or pursue your true goals in life, you can adapt a process I adapted. A few years ago. First strive to be financially free by doing what you are doing today. Post your financial freedom, you will have won the time in your favor 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 life passions.
(4) Keep your focus on the goal
Once the purpose is defined, align all your daily actions with the purpose of your life. You need to keep your focus on that end goal and that will drive your daily actions to make sure they are aligned with purpose. If you find things you do every day that are not aligned with your life purpose, start thinking and find ways to slowly remove 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 fraction of a second. Be grateful for what you have. Likewise, when you fall, don’t give up. Try again. Isn’t that exactly what you do when you fall into the game? Just look forward once more with renewed energy and fight your way back 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 gracefully. Don’t get too excited about your success and on the other hand don’t get discouraged by your failure. Everything is temporary and life is supposed to have a mix of both. That is also the sportsmanship. Make losing a motivation, not an excuse not to play again. Turn your negative result into positive energy to fight again and come out on top.
(7) Be patient
Patience is another of the virtues that we can learn from this game. You can be down and out. You may be the last in the batch, but if you stay patient and continue to do the right thing, you’ll soon be amazed at how quickly life can bring you back, exactly the way it happens in this game. So be patient, keep doing the right thing, don’t get distracted, annoyed or discouraged. Life will take a turn…once again. Give it a try and stay on the right track.
(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 ever won this game just because they got more straights? No. Your future in the game of life is determined by one thing, and one thing only: “move.” Just keep moving always forward. Don’t stop at the foot of a snake and roll the dice. Just keep moving. Get up again and keep moving. You may want to pause for a moment to recharge your batteries, or even cry for a bit, but then keep moving. 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 hurry to get to the end of the game. Enjoy the lucky breaks, but keep in mind that the constant patches and snakes keep us from getting to the end too quickly and add flavor to our game. Enjoy your journey of this game, the twists and turns, the snakes and the ladders alike. In the end, everyone will reach the ultimate goal, sooner or later. Be a good player, make the most of everything the journey brings. Enjoy and appreciate every moment of life.
