Tag: challenges

Yahtzee and an aha! moment that changes everything

Posted on by philipdodson

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.

A difficult path always leads us to where we want to go in life

Posted on by philipdodson

A difficult path always leads us to where we want to go in life.

Our lack of confidence in ourselves leads us to overthink and analyse everything, to the point that it becomes exhausting and causes us to suffer a great deal.

When we are constantly worried about the reactions to our actions it paralyses us and leads us to act in a way that is not true to ourselves. We say and do things or we don’t say or do things to avoid being in the limelight and to stay safe as we see it.

This prohibition of showing our real selves causes more suffering as we always feel like we are holding back and our soul wants to speak out and share its truth, but the mind fears the reactions. It creates sabotage and excuses as to why we should not be true to ourselves.

When we act in a non-authentic way to minimise what we fear will be others’ reactions to us, we actually create a further lessening of self-confidence as people are not comfortable with our lack, we are not showing our real selves, so that actually causes people to move away from us more. They sense our lack of confidence and then we feel their reaction to us and it only goes to confirm the stories in our minds of not being worthy, not being liked and not being loved.

It becomes a vicious circle, a self-fulfilling prophecy. We create a worsening of our own self-confidence based on our starting position of uncertainty and fear.

It is a challenging loop to break, it takes a great deal of bravery and a willingness to be vulnerable and not fear others’ reactions to our truth. Of course, our truth needs to be shared with empathy, kindness and compassion. However, our truth will come from our heart and therefore, it will always come from a place of love.

This is all easily written here in a blog and a great deal harder to practice in real life. I struggle with it and have come to realise, like any practice, we have to build it step by step, day by day, moment by moment and the more we practice the easier it becomes and the stronger our confidence will come.

When we speak our truth some will, of course, move on and not feel comfortable with it. However, our people will be attracted to our truth and that is what matters. Equally, we will be able to love ourselves fully for being vulnerable, willing to show up and to live a life of integrity.

Again, this is not an easy thing, however, vulnerability is meant to be difficult because anything that requires commitment and bravery will always lead us to the things that truly matter in life. There is a warrior spirit in us all, a loving, nurturing, strong and caring one, that when it rises will help us to be able to become our true selves, to be authentic and to share our light and gifts with the world.

A difficult path always leads to where we want to go in life.