As a family, we love playing Yahtzee, which for those who are not familiar with it, it is a simple dice game with 5 dice, you get 3 rolls to achieve certain set things like as many 1’s, 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s and 6’s as you can, 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, a full house (3 of one number and 2 of another), a high and low straight (1,2,3,4 and 5 or 2,3,4,5 and 6), and Yahtzee the ultimate score with 50 points is 5 of the same number and then there is a ‘chance’ where if you mess up aiming to get one of the set things you can just add the total of the dice at the end of your 3 rolls.
We’ve been playing it almost every day recently and we all love it.
I had an ‘aha’ moment yesterday after playing it. I noticed that in games, especially Yahtzee but also most other games, I am very decisive and I instinctively know what I want to do. I do not hesitate when playing Yahtzee…I might roll as my first role of the 5 dice a 6,5,3,2 and 2. I immediately know to go for my low straight 2,3,4,5 or 3,4,5,6 or I sense to go for Yahtzee with 2’s I only need 3 more 2’s from another 2 rolls. I just immediately do what I feel. Now, of course, I do not always get it right, but I say ‘no worries, it’s just a game, I get another turn in a minute and it’s always OK because I can play another game’.
I am good at playing games as I risk everything and as I said it does not always work, but it works more often than not, I am confident and I believe I am good at it and therefore, I am and I win quite often.
As I laid in bed thinking about this, I realised that life is a game of Yahtzee. Every moment we get to start a new game if we choose, it doesn’t matter what I rolled last time, just go again and again. Follow your instinct, your feeling, the intuition from your soul and do it. Do not fear what dice to roll in life, just roll them and see what comes up. If the dice aren’t what you want roll again. We can always start again from any situation and the more we roll the better we get at knowing what works and doesn’t.
What happens in life is I think, I hesitate, I analyse, I think about all the options and the what ifs. Instead, I can use my intuition from my soul and just roll. I can change on the next roll if the outcome doesn’t give me the right dice and then go again. I can start a new game and learn from the choices I made last time, I can enjoy the rolling of the dice too, as I am not fearful of the outcome.
I am now going to play Yahtzee every day in my life. Of course, it will, like any game, take practice and the belief that you can do it, but that is what life is, a fun game to be played and to learn as we play. Of course, I’ll make bad choices, and need to start a new game as I will run out of rolls for that game. It will be a challenge because I’ll have to overcome my mind and I’ll have to deal with my fears.
Mistakes are only mistakes if we do not learn from them, and even then, we have a lifetime to eventually get the lesson and apply it and maybe we won’t learn, but hey that’s OK too.
Play Yahtzee…it’s great fun and it could change your life.
Philip Dodson 