Crap!

 Earlier this week, I spent about half an hour cleaning the manure from a cattle trailer. I began to think,” Why is it that cows, after riding in the trailer for only a half an hour or less, decide to crap everywhere?” I don't mean to be graphic, but it turns out that most animals do their business when they are nervous. For some unknown reason, their instincts push them to release their waste when they are uncomfortable. I do not know if the animals expect that action to change their position or if they do it mindlessly. Regardless of the reason that they do it, this action obviously does nothing to improve their situation. A loss of my appetite occurred when I thought of all the times I get nervous. To give a few examples, I have become nervous before tests, while public speaking, before a sports event, when I open my progress report, and during a plethora of other instances. This is one of the qualities that separates human beings from animals. Unfortunately, when life becomes tense, simply laying a log will only increase our difficulties.

There are some individuals who give up when they come across an issue in their lives. When they fall, they don't bother to stand back up. Don't be one of those people. Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Walt Disney all failed myriad times before they ever succeeded. Thomas Edison failed more than 1000 times in his attempt to invent the light bulb. But because he chose to continue through his failure, he finally succeeded and became one of the greatest inventors of our time. It is my belief that when we are willing to work for what we want and never give up, we really can do anything. An unknown author said,” Don’t be discouraged. It’s often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock.” This author tells us that perseverance is required to bring home the bacon. Just keep trying different keys and eventually, you will find the right one.

Our success is not and should not be easy. Your success will be much more meaningful to you when you fail a few times to reach that goal. To give an example of this, think of someone you know who is naturally great as some sport, skill or whatever it may be. Often times, when they win a competition, prize or reward, they take that achievement for granted. Not to say that natural talent is a bad thing, but when someone who spends hours their time to practice and to finally achieve that same prize wins, they will feel much more rewarded than the person who mindlessly wins. You reap what you sow.

Remember to think of life as a game and don't forget to have fun. Learn to laugh at you mistakes. Our instincts may tell us to quit, throw in the towel, and abandon ship when a pin sized leak begins to fill our boat with water. Solve the problem instead of avoiding it. Next time that you experience a failure I challenge you to find a way to overcome that experience, to learn from it, and to never give up.

What? The game called life?

 So I decided to use the metaphor life is a game to increase my optimism that I have towards my own experiences that occur in my life. Life really is similar to a game. I hope to prove that statement to myself and to you as I write about the joys, perils, triumphs, and failures in my life.

Life can be compared to the game wrestling. After I had lost a close match with a competitor, my coach asked me,” So what did you learn?” There is truthfully much to learn when failure and loss occurs. Now apply that truth to real life. Take debt as one example. After an individual falls into debt, instead of becoming distressed and complaining about their situation, that individual can ask themselves the question what can I learn from this experience? That person will gain experience and knowledge and they will not repeat the same mistake. Remember that this depends on the attitude of individual and these results are also dependent of the the manner that they chose to react.

So when you think of life as a game, what does that change? It can really change every aspect of your existence. Soccer, volley ball, jousting or what ever game that you prefer involves many life like characteristics. These games involve teammates, opponents, coaches, practice, winning, losing, injury, and countless other things that can be compared to our lives. Teammates are our friends, opponents are our enemies, coaches are our teachers and parents, so on and so forth.

Changing your mindset can dramatically change your physical and mental well being. Happiness, anger, sadness, these are only choices that we make in our lives. I have applied the phrase “Choose the joy” multiple times in my life and it has made a notable difference. Thomas Monson said, “We can't direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. For maximum happiness, peace, and contentment, may we choose a positive attitude.” He is telling us that although we can not change many of our circumstances, we can control our reactions to those circumstances.

One of my favorite Hymns is Count Your Blessings. It says, “Count your blessings name them one by one, count your blessings see what God hath done.” Fyodor Dostoevsky writes about the opposite point of view in the following quote, “Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.” These quotes explain that life becomes so much better when you recognize all of the amazing gifts that you have been given. I assure you that life becomes so much more pleasing when you choose to acknowledge all that has been given to you.

Not only can we grow from viewing our lives as a game, but we can also learn to enjoy the good times to a greater extent. Looking at life as a game in general seems to ease tension and add a sense of adventure. Just tell yourself that life is a game and just enjoy every experience.