Life is a game of Chess

Chess is a game that very few people truly enjoy, and even fewer master. The same goes for the game of life. In fact, the game of chess has so many parallels in our world it is probably the most analagous board game ever invented.

In life, you also face a single opponent. That opponent is by it's very nature better at the game than you.

Your opponent in life's game of chess is yourself. You are the singlemost effective barrier to your own success and without acknowledging and accepting that fact, your chances of a positive outcome are greatly diminished. Acknowledgement and acceptance is only the first step. To defeat your enemy, you must know your enemy. You must be able to predict your opponents movements and counter those movements before they can affect you.

Life is both an offensive and defensive battle. You must defend your King (or your spirit) while at the same time attacking, cornering, and ineffectualizing your opponents King (your self doubt). You have weapons at your disposal in many forms, but innefective use of those weapons can permanently disable them. Your arsenal of weapons is less directly analagous, but you certainly have ways of defending yourself and breaking through the barriers of self limitation.

The human mind is capable of absorbing information on so many levels that not a single scientist has ever attempted to ascertain them all and those that have made attempts at categorization are all well aware that their efforts could not be considered all encompassing. That absorbtion of information - the knowledge that you can attain with focused and unfocussed effort is your Queen. It provides you with the capability to move offensively and defensively around the board simultaneously and with virtually no limitation.

Vertical and horizontal movement can be considered maneuvering through either action or inaction. Deliberate inaction is often as powerful a tool as direct action. Conscious situational decisions to do either can make a drastic change in the strategic landscape in front of you. This is your rook.

Diagonal movement is carefully weaving your way through scenarios requiring careful thought and planning. It can be as simple as juggling two dates on the same evening (a single square diagonal move), or as complicated as navigating corporate politics and achieving small personal successes to obtain a promotion (a much longer stride). This is handled by your bishops.

Your knights are moved around by thinking outside the box. A haphazard movement that is a mainstay for some people, and for others something that happens rarely, but effectively.

Your pawns are used to navigate the day to day mundane struggles that we all face, can overcome easily, but still find it necessary to expend a certain amount of effort to do so.

Self doubt is winning when you find it difficult to make progress and get tied down with day to day stresses that prevent you from moving forward toward your goals. The only thing preventing forward movement is your own mental barriers. Knowing that those barriers exist, how do you attack them? By gaining knowledge, deliberate action and inaciton, careful thought, a little bit of outside the box thinking, and by facing down your daily struggles for what they are - things that we all face and can overcome with little effort. If you find yourself limited in capabilities, perhaps you lost a piece to self doubt along the way. Move that pawn forward far enough by reducing the power of your daily struggles and you can change him into whatever is missing in your life.

Victory is rarely obtained against such a strong and intimate opponent - a stalemate is the most likely outcome. But armed with the knowledge that your opponent is vulnerable, you can now go out and achieve the most difficult successes.