The Choosing Game

The Choosing Game is easy to play.

1. Your actions, or lack of action, are permanent choices. 
2. Your actions are limited by existing guidelines. 
3. Time moves in one direction. 

That yet. The game that is so simple to play leaves us contemplating ceaselessly. The most worrisome choices are the ones that involve a significant portion of our life's asset, which includes time and energy. 

If I choose to do this for five weeks, I am putting five weeks of my life on the line. In the end, I may be satisfied or dissatisfied with my investment. The uncertainty of satisfaction drives the pressure for us to make good choices. 

Snow Light by me from Pixel 2 XL.

Good choices. 

Good choices make us happier and more fulfilled. Bad choices make us regret. Naturally, we want to make good choices, but The Choosing Game is not like Chess. There is not a universal end goal to "win," and there are nearly infinite possibilities of choices. 

What you will do for each second of your life is a choice. If we compound that, our choices reach infinity. 

Lost potential. 

When we have too many choices, we began to think of our lost potential.

"I would have been like this person... I could have succeeded... I almost did that..."

Choices sound like good things. They give us the ability to make us happier, but they also introduce the mentality of lost potential. Choices taunt us: you could have done better. 

It is not a game to lose. 

One important thing to note is that The Choosing Game is not a game that you can win. Even the best person on Earth has made wrong choices. Everyone regrets to some extent. There is no perfect being. On the other hand, no one really loses at the game. Sure, you may think you are really bad at the game, but you have to look back and appreciated the path you have walked. 

A single choice could have changed the person you are today. All of your choices shape the person you are today. You are not perfect, but you are special, to your and people around you.