Choose your game

I was thinking about the world as a theme park. There are so many games you can play. You can become an entrepreneur, a teacher, a doctor, a father or a mother. Each role gives you something different to experience.

There is an idea in Vedanta called līlā, often translated as divine play. It makes me wonder what happens when I look at my own life as a game I am participating in. Which roles am I choosing? Which game do I actually want to play?

Look one level down, at the mechanics. You want something. That desire gives you a direction. The way I see it, desire can be impulsive. A goal is a desire I have chosen to give time and effort to.

To move towards that goal, I have to act. And the way I act is connected to who I believe I am. That brings me back to be, do, have.

Who do I need to be? What does that person do? What might those actions make possible?

One idea I took from Maxwell Maltz’s Psycho-Cybernetics is how strongly our self-image can shape what we attempt and how we behave. If I keep seeing myself in a particular way, I can keep bringing myself back to the same limits.

So begin with identity. If I want to be an entrepreneur, what does being an entrepreneur require of me? I need to learn, make decisions, take responsibility and build something. Then I acquire the skills, develop the relationships and do the work the goal calls for.

The identity gives direction to the action. The action gives me experience. That experience can change how I see myself too.

And when I reach the goal, the game continues. There will be another possibility, another role, another thing I could want. I can choose which desires deserve my attention. I can let others pass.

That is where flexibility matters to me. A fixed idea of my personality can end up governing every decision. “That’s just who I am” becomes the answer before I have even looked at what the situation needs.

I want the flexibility to change my mind, reconsider my goals and adapt my identity as I learn. A father, a teacher and an entrepreneur may need different things from the same person.

Be whoever or whatever the situation demands.