I woke up early this morning, I haven’t been sleeping well – either waking up way too early or going to sleep way too late. I’ve been thinking about life a lot lately, as one does, I suppose, when one starts losing the people who raised them – and when they’re an age where they have friends who pass away too.
This morning, like many mornings, I pulled out my phone in an attempt to make my brain shut up so I could go back to sleep. Yes, I know, his is really the opposite of what you’re supposed to do, but when I just lay there, my thoughts start racing and it’s not good for anyone. So I pulled out my phone and started playing Tetris, which I’d just downloaded yesterday. It was one of my favorite Nintendo games when I was a kid, and it’s held up well over the years.
Anyway, while sitting there playing this game, I soon realized there are a lot of things that living life well has in common with playing Tetris well, and I thought I’d share those deep thoughts here… because in the words of my 5 year old, “why not?”
1. Don’t Let Things Pile Up
If you let things pile up, or stack things willy-nilly, you’re going to wind up in trouble pretty quickly in Tetris. You’re going to have a bigger mess than you started with, and you’re making things harder for yourself. Same goes with life. Letting things pile up – life admin tasks, cleaning, organizing, work, finances etc. makes everything so much harder than if you were just to take care of things when they happen. Yes, some things are unpleasant, but if we don’t deal with them now, then they’re only going to get more unpleasant.
2. Stop Waiting for Perfect
This doesn’t go well in Tetris, but it also doesn’t go well in life. In Tetris, you can spend the entire game waiting for that perfect block – the 1 x 4 while stacking the rest of the blocks in outstanding formation. You’ll run out of time. Eventually, that stack gets so high, and you’re suddenly in the same situation as if you’d just stacked things willy-nilly. That block doesn’t come and you’re out of time. So much for getting a Tetris. You’re about to lose the game.
There is never going to be a time that’s more perfect than now. Stop waiting for it – and by all means, please don’t use that 1×4 somewhere else because you want the perfect stack before knocking out a row. It won’t happen. Start that business now. Love people you love now. Take that vacation now. Live. You have a life. Live it.
3. Make the Unwanted Pieces Work for You
No matter how careful you are, Tetris is going to give you pieces you don’t want when you don’t want them. You get the 2×2 square when you don’t have a flat surface for it. You get an L-shape and have no place for an L-shape. An expert Tetris player just makes the piece work – and puts it in the place that will do the least amount of long-term damage.
Life is going to throw crap at you. Sometimes, it’s an endless barage of crap. We all have seasons where we have things we don’t want to deal with come in and muck up our nicely-stacked lives. The trick is in figuring out how to make those things work for you, or in some cases, how to mitigate the damage so you can clean things up and get back at it.
4. Don’t Panic When Things Get Hectic
If you’re playing in marathon mode, or the classic mode, eventually, the pieces are going to be flung at you in rapid succession. You’ll barely have time to think, and you will make a mistake. The key is not to panic. As soon as you panic, you’re going to make more mistakes and soon the game will be over.
In life, panicing doesn’t do anyone any bit of good. When things get rough, don’t panic. Try to slow your mind, and move from a place of peace.
5. Don’t Quit Trying
Even when things look pretty dire in Tetris, you could still make progress. Keep trying. In life, things look tough sometiems. Insurmountable even. But I promise you, if you keep focusing on putting your blocks where they need to go to knock out stuff – even if you make more of a mess knocking out those rows – you will get into a better place.
Don’t quit trying. Don’t give up.
