What our beloved game of Mario has been secretly teaching us about lessons of Life.
Have you played the game of Mario? Of course, you did.I absolutely loved the game. I have spent countless hours of school vacation trying to rescue the princess. Even after advent of so many computer games and play stations, my heart still yearns to play Mario.
I was talking to my friend about this game the other day when this realization occurred. The sweet game of Mario has been indirectly teaching so many valuable lessons of life. Read through the post and let me know if you agree to my statement or not.
Life does not happen on a level ground
No matter how much we crave for an easy and comfortable life, life takes us on a roller coaster ride.
Do you remember the game? We had to jump to save ourselves from the grumpy birds, sometimes run fast to jump big ditches , other time slow down to avoid falling down.
It was never smooth. Do you think you would have played the game if all we had to do was run the entire duration, level after level till we meet our princess?
Maybe life is not meant to be smooth.
It is by design meant for us to run, slow down, tread cautiously when required and when situation befits take a leap of faith.
Challenges are the part of the Game
Challenges are what made the game interesting and challenges are what helps us become the best version of ourselves.
I don’t recall anyone ever complaining about the incessant birds and ducks, ditches or the dreadful carnivorous plant pooping out of the tunnel. They knocked us out nine out of ten times but every time, we came back with a firm resolve and a burning excitement to conquer those challenges.
Why don’t we follow the same approach in life?
Why do we complain about debts, bad weather, heavy traffic or nagging boss? They are nothing but yet another challenge and all that is needed on our part is to level up.
Let’s say Sam is recently divorced. If he thinks his life is screwed, it will be so. If Fred got fired and he accepts that there is no job in the market and that he is doomed, guess what, he will be.
I am reminded of an incident about two friends who lost their jobs during the last recession. While one of them cursed his stars and gave up which ultimately led him to depression and increased medical bills, the other friend frantically went from door to door of every company.
He eventually settled to work for free for one particular company. When the situation settled a bit, guess who was called to lead the operations team of the company.
We never get Life tidied up in neat little boxes. So why the fuss? Let us enjoy the game while we can play.
As you get better, the game gets Bigger
I remember, used to cruise through the first stage of the Mario under a minute. Then the levels kept getting difficult and demanded increased level of focus and faster response time.
Just when we thought we can get past the ducks, they began to fly as well. Then there were cannon firings.
The underwater level or the one through the sky, the fighter turtles and of course the fire-belching dragon, etc. kept increasing the difficulty and kept us on our toes.
As we advance through the stage, our emotions are heightened for the fear of losing is frightening but at the same time, the possibility of winning is what keeps us hooked to the game.
Life is much the same. As soon as we fix one issue, another one is waiting to greet us. The idea is to accept them as part of the life and learn from each lesson.
Life is constantly teaching us lessons. When we master one lesson, we are prepared for the next one.
For example, if your boss or spouse is nagging, your lesson is to be understanding, patient, may be more loving ( for your spouse only
:) ) and not quit.
Your lessons follow you no matter where you go. This is the reason you would have experienced a particular type of incident happening again and again in your life.
People complain, why is this happening to me all the time. Well, maybe you are not learning your lesson, dear !
Collect the Coins
Ah! The coins were another very interesting aspect of the game. I loved the sweet ‘ting’ sound every time I jumped to collect them.
The coins resemble the rewards that you gain as you progress in your life. Your cars, houses and all the other material comforts and riches are the rewards you gain when you keep pushing forward in your life.
These make life interesting but just like the coins in the game, they hold little relevance to the actual objective of the game which is to rescue the princess.
We have got this life to realize our deepest desires and manifest our dreams. Yes, the material gains will delight us but they are not the ultimate goals.
The biggest challenge and the reason for depression among people is that they feel that they can fill the void in their life with these external comforts.
Our heart and soul crave for something much bigger which is full realization of our truest potential.
A fulfilling life is one which has a purpose and a meaning.
The Princess is Mine
We kept getting knocked out either by those sulky, grumpy birds or those non stop moving ducks, the big ditches or those vicious Mario- eating plants.
No matter how many times we had to restart, we never flinched. Yeah, maybe we did but never did we stop till we accomplished our goals.
I believe this is the most important and fundamental of all ‘lesson of life’ that this game offers.
No matter how many times life knocks us down, which it will, we should pull ourselves back, dress our wounds, and come back with a firm resolve to finish what we started.
Yes the heartbreaks would be real when we lose but they happen only to make us aware of what we forgot to prepare for.
Remember the words of the legendary Muhammad Ali,
I don’t stop when I am tired. I stop when I am done.
I hope you found the lessons of life from Mario’s point of view somewhat interesting and useful. Do let me know your thoughts on this.
Do take a moment to read about few more gems for life:
The power of positive thinking
Important lessons from LifeHack team
Stay Blessed