The 365 Commitment

Day 119 – A Beautiful Game

As you set about the game of life, what is the aim? Is the goal to win, or just to play a beautiful game? Winning can be an ugly business, if our goal is just to win then we would play the game much differently then if we set out to play a beautiful game.

I am always striving for the next ambition, to claw and scratch my way to the next win. However, I am not entirely sure that is my total ambition. Honestly, if winning the game was the only real end state then I would certainly have made and make different choices in life.

I think the real question is how the game looks like when you are done. Yesterday I compared creating the capability to achieve a goal by accumulating success to that of a game of chess. To extend that same analogy – is what you are working on now going to be a game that you remember?

Some games of chess are so interesting, so revealing, so intense, so filled with subtle nuance that they are considered beautiful games and people remember them and refer to them often. The great chess player, Bobby Fischer was an amazing player but what really captured the imagination of the world was the way that he played. It felt more like art then chess at times and that is part of transcendence.

The question to consider – is the current ambitions that you have, the current work you are doing going to look beautiful when you are done? Sometimes we can get check the box with a win but end up with a really ugly way to get there. We have all seen a sporting match where a team can claim they won, but we all remember just how ugly the game was that got them that win.

So I wonder what our ambition is? Are we trying to play a beautiful game, or we just trying to win?

Interesting questions to ponder on a early Saturday morning as I ponder my 365 list for the day.

Guy Reams (119)
365 Member

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