I’ve lately become addicted to a simple game on my iPhone – CHESS. It’s quickly becoming an addiction; Reason being is that I see so many similarities between the game of Chess and the Game of Life.
We all must play on the same board. We’re all made from the same substances. He who thinks many moves in advance is the one that wins. The parallels go on and on, but have you ever stopped to think about the pieces themselves?
If you’re not familiar with chess, you have several different pieces, all with unique abilities to move in certain directions. You have pawns on the front line and several other pieces leading up to your most important piece, the King. The object of chess is to protect the King and capture the opposing team’s King.
Life is a lot like that. We’re all on the same board, Earth. Some of us start out in different positions, such as a front-line pawn, while some of us are born into a lot of security, with a large supporting cast around us like the King or Queen. However, unlike Chess, we have the free will to be any chess piece we want in life.
That’s right; you can assume any role you want in life, whether it be a pawn or a King/Queen. How is that you ask?
Every day you define your role. How you move, how you operate, how you plan. In chess, a pawn can move one space, at most two spaces. A Queen, on the other hand, can move in any direction, as far as she wants. Think about your life. There are no limitations on how much you can accomplish in a day. No one will ever tell you, you’ve gone too far today, you’ve accomplished too much, and you must stop here. We place those limitations on ourselves sometimes. We don’t strive for royalty; we settle for being pawns.
We’re supposed to cover the “entire board,” that why there’s an amazing world out here for us to go see. We weren’t born to just “stay in our square.”
In Chess, inexperienced players usually sacrifice their pawns early in the game and try and protect “the important pieces.” Losing a pawn doesn’t affect us, but losing a bishop, a queen, and especially a King hurts us. In life, we define our roles based on the decisions we make. Too many people lead careless, uncalculated lives, running right into the Enemy. When you think only about your motives and not those of the people around you, you’re setting yourself up to get captured by the Enemy and wiped off the board, so to speak.
Look at people you admire and look up to. There’s a good chance they live their lives as royalty. They put a solid support group around them. They work well with others. They make calculated moves and they plan very well. Aside from that, when it’s time to make a move in life, they strike hard and cover a lot of ground.
You can do the same. You can be Kings and Queens on this Chess Board of Life. All it takes is a change in your mindset. You must live your life as a piece that matters, and subsequently, people around you will start treating you as such.
Always remember, at the end of the game the King and the Pawn go in to the same box. Make the most of your time on this Earth, live a life of a piece that matters, and win!
-Baylor
