Referring to life as a game can give both context and triviality to the finality of mortality. Life is certainly not a trivial matter.
This character we play. Truths we realize as we grow. I do not like licorice. I love the sun and the rain, however I would prefer to never see them at the same time. Our food preferences seem to be somewhat unalterable. But our visual and kinetic preferences seem subject to change. Your genes hold pieces, from those who played the game of life before you. This can come in the form of help if you find yourself a gifted athlete or hindrance if you find yourself plagued by mental illness. From there, you find out if your inherited traits will stick with you, forever unchanged. And traits, such as your athleticism which can change. Distancing yourself from things you do not want to be is the most important and difficult part of the game. As you go about your day try to take a step back and look at the person looking through your eyes. Who is that person, is it you making these choices to do these things or are you ruled by cravings and past programming that you are ignorant of? All through your childhood you may not have made a single conscious choice. One day you wake up to see you can make some drastically different decisions than you have in the past. You might need to apply your time in an entirely different manor. You were once a sad person, you need only act as a happy one to take on the guise of that trait. As you wear that costume you start to remember what it feels like even when you do not have it on. Eventually you do not need the costume of happiness at all. The environment you are in can force you to wear one costume or another. You may feel pressure to put on an entirely different act when you are out for dinner or home talking with a friend.
Something that should be painfully clear. As long as you are not hurting anyone, you should feel no pressure to be anything other than who you want. The first action needs to be observation. You need to observe the person behind your eyes. I find it most helpful to meditate on this issue at the end of the day. Reviewing choices and analyzing if they fit into the kind of character I want to see myself as. After a thorough and unbiased observation has taken place. Your next step is a direction. Observation should include an expansion of your field of view. When you choose a direction. You need to make two choices. One choice needs to decide your direction in the foreseeable future. The other choice needs to be a long term goal which leads you into a place you have not been. If you have large goals, big dreams and wild aspirations. This second direction should be extremely concrete. Regardless how wild your goals are they should always boil down to something simple. Having clarity in these moments is extraordinarily important. An additional aspect of importance revolves around your view. This journey is about changing you. It is not about going somewhere, it is about being something. There are many things about yourself which are unchangeable. The majority of who you are is alterable through thought and action. If you desire a change don’t be the last person to realize you need it.