When you break life down, it's like a game. Every move you make has a ripple and can effect you either positively or negatively. You can be winning for a while and then suffer a terrible loss. You can lose for an extended period of time, and then come back at the very end. The issue with calling life a game is the inherent competitive nature associated with games.
We immediately think of and compare ourselves to other people, like football players and other athletes do as they size up opponents. I feel with life is more of a competition against yourself. You have to beat your doubts, beat your own hindrances, and beat the version of yourself that would fall short. This helps in sports, but you still do need to be conscious of your opposition in order to truly succeed.
Everything you do doesn't have a clear winner or loser, but rather it's the happiness you draw from things you do. If I'm doing what makes me happy to wake up and continue doing that thing every day, I'm winning. I falter in this mindset a lot because I want money and other things, but when I really strip it down I'm fortunate to know what makes me happy and be doing that.
My issue with seeing life as a game, even with the progressive definition I found, it seems like some people are happy losing. Some people want to be miserable. Some people promote their misery. Some people attach themselves to others' misery. It's sad when there's a world out there to be conquered.
It's one thing to embrace your pain and put it out for others to learn from. Those kinds of deep dives are important. The thing about a deep dive is eventually you're supposed to come up for air, otherwise you drown yourself. A lot of social media feels like people would rather drown than truly face and defeat what's in front of them. That's not the way it should be. I don't speak from a place of superiority here, but rather as someone who has drowned their self. It's not good. It doesn't help.
Social media is never the place. Whether you're blogging, dropping quotes, or perpetuating this message with the hopes someone will see it and check on you, there is no solace found in Tweets or IG stories. It's a solo mission, like it or not. People can guide you along the way toward your pain, but only you can bring yourself through it.
You have to make that decision, and act like it. You can't hold onto the past and carry that thinking with you into new situations. Misery can often be a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more you anticipate it or expect it, subconsciously your behavior may align.
The day you decide to come up for air, and win is one of the best days of your life. Winning isn't done in one day and then you're good for life. It takes a consistent mindset, a consistent effort, and the knowledge that not every situation will be easy but it doesn't mean you have to blow up with the thought things will be like they always were.
There is nothing wrong with being hurt or down on yourself, it's natural. And for some people it takes longer than others. My intent here is to light that spark under you. The spark that pushes you to want to be better. The spark that keeps you smiling and seeing the best in things. The spark that makes you actually want to try loving yourself and others. Actually loving yourself.
Too often people try to love themselves through social media. Those likes on that selfie and simply Tweeting you love yourself mean nothing, you have to actually do it. The issue is with social media everyone is performing and trying to compete for a certain perception instead of being secure in who they are. It's definitely a game, that's just the wrong one to play.
In life there are winners and losers. Circumstances may push one to losing, but it takes the genuine intrinsic desire and effort to win. Win within, not on the Timeline.
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