You could spend all of your time trying to beat the Game of Life… but what if you’ve already won?
TRANSCRIPTION:
There’s a way that I used to live life, where life was a game, and I treated life as this game that I had to win at all costs, and if you’re going to win the game, well, you got to get the power ups, got to get the coins, you got to get the grades, you got to pass the levels, you got to beat the boss, you have to level up in all the ways, why?
So that you can pass that level and then get to another one, and then you got to fight to that one and get to the next one, why? So that, eventually, you can arrive at some finish line, and then, hopefully, at that point, you can say, I won the game. And I played the game of life like that for a really long time.
And while I was playing the game of life like that, there was a lot of stress, because if you’re playing a game, you might lose. And all of a sudden, the outcome of the game is in doubt. And I actually lived for a long period of my life worrying that I wasn’t going to be able to pass the level, worrying that I wasn’t going to be able to win the game. And when I operated from that place of uncertainty, I was operating from fear. The game is just not as fun.
What I began to experience is a lot of stress, and I began to feel like there’s things that I don’t have that I need, that if I could just get those things, if I could just get those power ups, if I could just get those coins, if I could just meet the right other player, then I would win the game. And it created a lot of stress. There was the occasional wins. But that fear, that uncertainty was always there.
And I began to think about it a little differently, and I began to wonder if there’s another way to play this game without so much stress, without so much fear, with a little bit more love, a little bit more light, a little bit more joy. And this is what I found. I found that when I started to play life not as some game where the outcome was in doubt, but when I began to play the game of life as if I had already won, everything changed.
Everything in my life started to change. When I started acting as if I’d already won the game and this was the bonus level, I started to act like I’d already won the game by arriving here, by arriving to this game, entering this physical spectrum that we call life, that was actually the win, that was the finish line, this is the bonus level. And began to relax a little bit more.
I began to take myself less seriously, and I began to pay more attention to the people around me. I began to be less concerned with my own experiences and my own sense of qualification. I became less concerned with my own sense of worth or value, and much more interested in what was going on for the other players, much more interested in what was happening in the world around me. I stopped worrying about the future, or about the past, and I became more present.
Right now is when this game is happening, right now. And the outcome of the game is not in doubt. We’ve already won!
This is the bonus level! And operating from that place of certainty, operating from that place of calm confidence, appreciating the other players for their role in the game, honoring their experience, while allowing ourselves to have our own enjoyment of this game, because the outcome is not in doubt.
What if this is the bonus level? What if the ability to enjoy every piece of this level, what if that ability is right here, right now, and you just got to tune into that frequency? What if you could just experience the fullness and the beauty and the joy and the full spectrum? You’re going to have ups and downs, you’re going to have parts of the level that have some uncertainty, but instead of getting all freaked out and all curious about how it’s going to work, just trust. ‘Cause you’ve made it this far.
You’re here. You’ve got eyes to watch this, you’ve got ears to hear these words, you’ve got a mind to absorb these concepts and have this conversation. That proves that you do, in fact, exist. And since nothing blinks into existence without a reason for doing so, that means you have a purpose. That means you have a reason for being here. It doesn’t matter if you know that reason or not.
The fact that you’re here proves your worthiness, it proves your worth and your value. So the outcome of the game is not in doubt. You’ve already won the game. This is just the bonus level.
So why not enjoy this bonus level to the fullest of your capacity? Why not enjoy the adventure of your connection with other players? Why not enjoy leveling up? Why not enjoy collecting as many coins as you can collect? Why not? Why not do all those things simply because you can? Welcome to the bonus level. Game on.