It’d been decades since I played chess as I recalled, when a couple months ago my son miraculously showed up one day asking to play with me.
I had a felt … a ting of resistance.
I played chess a lot in high school, mainly passing by the lunch period time. And I recall really enjoying it.
The strategy intrigued me.
And then I played some in college.
…. until I broke my hand
…. punching a cabinet
… in frustration for having lost a chess game to my roommate
… who was celebrating like he’d won the Super Bowl
… after losing 10 times to me.
I think, yeah, that was my wakeup call:
I was taking the game WAY too seriously.
I mean even typing it it feels rather drippingly obvious.
Look at it as a headline:
Kid Breaks Hand
After Losing Chess Game
That might have been the last game I played before my son asked me a few months ago.
It seems obvious now … but then it didn’t, until I broke my hand in anger after losing a game that I was taking the game and winning WAY too serious.
ONE game, mind you, not a bunch, but one out of 10.
And that wakeup call told me to take a big huge step back from it, which I obviously did.
Fast forward to today …
I realized I’ve been playing the game of business, of work … WAY too serious, for way too long.
I’ve been mired in anger and frustration.
Then I crashed and burned.
Only months later, I’m realizing some of what happened …. but today I. know …
The game, the fun, disappeared when the stakes got too big and I started taking it increasingly more serious.
There was a lot to lose after all, right?
There was more to prove, right?
That’s when the game I used to love playing … became work.
And the answers to those questions truly ….
Nothing. At least of real value.
Let’s turn the music back on at work … and have some fun again.