Life is a bit like the game “Chutes and Ladders”…

I had never related this game to life much until just recently.

I was in one of my 2-day HEART of a Leader trainings and we were talking about the ups and downs of life and that we all have challenges in life – all of us – they just may be different challenges for all of us.

Yet there will always be challenges.  There will always be obstacles.  There will be risks.  There will be rewards.  All people will play the game differently and that’s ok – just choose to play the game the way YOU WANT to play it.

There will always be rewards available by landing on the “right” spot to get to take a ladder to the next level or even skip entire rows/sections of the journey.  Awesome.

There will also be times that for whatever reason you land on the “wrong” spot and you take a slide down a level or two or even worse, almost all the way back to the beginning.  Awesome.

Isn’t life AWESOME!?!?!!?  Without the risks and rewards you wouldn’t feel alive my friends.

Don’t get upset and quit, don’t walk away – pick yourself up, laugh about it, and apply the lessons to your next “turn” (opportunity).

Embrace this opportunity to take risks and move up and forward in life – knowing that sometimes you are going to have to take a few steps or two back in order to truly have the next opportunity to really move forward.

Don’t be afraid of the risks and choose the path that never leads to winning – choosing to not play the game at all.  Sitting back and being passive and allowing the world, the game, and others dictate your journey in life is not why you were put here on this earth my friends.

Play the game of life as if you matter my friends, because you do.

Award-winning Author, Speaker, & Trainer (more importantly, a loving husband, father, son, brother and friend), Brandon W. Johnson, a.k.a., "Positive Energy Guy"