Do It Even if You Won't Win

There are some things in life that you must do even if there is no hope of winning.

You don’t have a choice. You can’t do anything else. If you give up, what then is your life? What are you alive for? Why do you insist on wasting space any longer?

Life isn’t about having a guaranteed win. If you were going to get everything handed to you by default, and you knew this for sure, life wouldn’t be very fun. Not for long, anyway. You’d be like a god in a limitless universe where you can make anything you desire appear immediately and with little effort. The logical result of this is hedonism—that is, until you get so overindulged in hedonism that it becomes anhedonic. At that point, you would use your powers to make the game harder. You’d create another universe where it takes time for your thoughts to physically manifest, and you actually have to put effort into achieving them. Yes, that’s right—that’s just like the world we live in now.

The point? If you were a god and you wanted to create an interesting experience for yourself, you would eventually re-create the reality we as humans experience on Earth. That’s because this slice of reality is the most interesting one out there. Things aren’t certain. Events unfold based on who can expend the most effort and in the wisest way. The beings in this slice of reality have to dig deep to find resources they didn’t even know existed, lest they fail and perish.  At the same time, however, this reality isn’t a constant race from death. People make mistakes all the time. They get set back, but they also get second chances. Some people really turn the ship around on the second chance, and they achieve what they originally set out to achieve. Others need three, four, or five more chances to finally succeed. Some people never make it, and still others get no chance at all.

The premise of the second chance makes the game much more interesting. You never get to restart the game, but you can make such incredible changes to your character that you might as well have. If needed, you can also make certain changes to the playing field in order to do this, such as by choosing a different spot on the map to play the game in.

Subsequent chances are never the same as the first chance—nor any other chance, for that matter. Again: the game keeps going and cannot be restarted. The way the game unfolds, however, is largely dependent on two things: (1) your skill level, and (2) how you apply yourself to the game. If you have a high level of skill, but you aim to do no more than watch TV, you will not affect the game much. If you aim to take over the world, but you have the skill level of the snail, you will likewise not affect the game much. But, if you can attain the sweet spot where there is a high skill level and big plans for how you will use those skills, you can become a major player in the game. And, you just might even win.

That win, of course, is not guaranteed. Depending on what your aims are, the win may be very hard. It may be nearly impossible. You might work hard for years, develop an extremely powerful character, and still lose.

But, guess what? Should that situation be your fate, you will still have gotten the point. You will still have gone through this life having believed in something (above all, having believed in yourself and that you could do it) and actively worked towards it. You still will have pushed life to its limits to see what really is and is not possible. You will have seen the depths and the heights of who you really are. And, of course, you will enjoy the heck out of yourself along the way, and get to look back and smile on it all in the end.

This result- having gotten the point- is only possible if you aim to win. If you think that winning really is 100% impossible, then you won’t even try. Rather than paddle down the stream you’ll flop around in the kiddie pool until you drown. Your belief in the win is the oar that enables you to travel. If you think your actions are all for naught, then naught you will do. You will not go anywhere.

If you want to get anywhere in this world, you must believe in every thing you ever do. Doubts will destroy you if you do not destroy them. On the other hand, if you know not only that what you are doing is right, but that it is already done, the world will open up to you. You will walk the path in quiet confidence. You will never lose the path for long. All doors you encounter will be unlocked soon enough, typically by your own hand. And, when you believe in yourself, other people will too. That’s how any movement gets created: one person believes in something with his whole being; then, another person notices this and follows him.

So, as long as it agrees with your conscience, go ahead and do whatever it is you want to do but aren’t sure you can do. If someone else disagrees with your actions, they will have to grow strong enough to stop you. If they stop you, and you lose, then you will die knowing you have reached the zenith of what was possible for yourself in this particular lifetime. If they do not stop you, then you win.