The game Monopoly is about competing against others in order to get the best locations where you can build houses and hotels, so that you can later demand rent from those who visit your locations. As the game progresses, each player becomes part of a feedback-loop where the rent you collect enables you to build more houses (and even hotels), which in turn let you collect more rent. The player with the best feedback-loop (and some luck) will over time start to dominate, this in turn forces the opponents to sell some of their locations and the dominance will be increased until one player has a sort of monopoly of the board.
Such self-enhancing feedback-loops are also present in real life - if you have money to invest and do it wisely, you will get a return which in turn makes it possible for you to invest even more money. This is why your are told to start saving for retirement as early in your life as you can, as such exponential growth will make a small difference in the beginning turn into a large difference in the end.
You could also say that it is the other way around, that these feedback-loops of real life are modelled in the Monopoly. And this perspective naturally brings forth the interesting question : “If your life was a board game, what kind of game would it be?”. You could take this question literally and if you are like most people, it would probably be a game of getting to work, taking care of the children and still manage to watch that favourite sitcom of yours. Or you could take the question as an opportunity to model a game by what you would like your life to be about - a game about achieving your life’s purpose. This might be a romantic game of getting the princess (or the prince) and half the kingdom. It also might be a game of progress, always achieving higher standards socially, financially, spiritually, physically and mentally. Or it might be more like Stratego, a board game that resembles a military campaign and the purpose is to destroy the opponent and achieve great glory. Or it might be a scientist game, where you need to do hard work and research in order to get recognized and win a Nobel Prize.
What is critical to notice is that a game without an objective is no fun at all - and consequently a life without purpose is not fun either. What is needed in order to enjoy the game of life is to acknowledge your purpose in life. Having a purpose in life is rarely talked about and if you have not given thought to what your purpose is, I will encourage you to find out. You might already think you have a purpose in life or you might not, but either way having a purpose is only the first step.
The next and most important step is to take your purpose seriously. If you are playing a game like Monopoly, but you are not trying to reach the objective (to win), like if you never buy any locations - then again the fun is ruined and not only for you but also for everybody else playing the game. This applies to real life too, you should never get too lazy, too fearful or too complacent to work on fulfilling your life’s purpose. If so, you risk getting lost in everyday trivialities effectively wasting your life.
If you think of a time when you were very passionate about something and had all the motivation in the world, I bet it was at a time when you felt a significantly higher connection to your purpose than usual. Living a passionate life is about living with a passion for life and vice versa. And it is fun too! Working to fulfil you life’s purpose will not only be enjoyable work but each step along the way will provide you with empowering confidence that you are on the right track.
For those of you that have not found your life’s purpose yet I will probably have something to say about that at a later time but I hope this article have made you realize the importance of having a purpose in life if you, like everybody else, want to live a life full of passion and fun!
