The Jenga of life

Jenga metaphor #thismightnotwork

It's been ages since I last shared a metaphor on this blog. This one hit me during my morning walk today, 8th August 2024. As I was trudging through the early morning mist, my brain made an odd connection: life is kinda like a game of Jenga.

You know Jenga, right? That game where you're trying to build the tallest tower possible by yanking out blocks and stacking them on top. It's all fun and games until someone knocks the whole thing over. But today, I saw it differently.

The Baseline: Your Value System

Picture this: you start with a perfect Jenga tower. All the blocks neatly stacked, everything solid and stable. That's you. That's your life, your values, everything you stand for. It's rock solid, built on all the principles you've picked up over the years.

The Dangerous Dance of Compromise

Now, here's where it gets interesting. Every time you play Jenga, you're taking a risk, right? You pull out a block, the tower gets taller, but it's wobbling more. In life, it's kinda the same deal:

• Maybe you tell a little white lie. No big deal, right? But they start to add up...
• Or you cut corners on a business deal. Just this once, you tell yourself.
• Perhaps you're racking up some debt. One credit card becomes two, becomes three...
• Or you let slide something that goes against your values. It's just a small thing, a papercut. But man, those papercuts sting after a while.

Every time you look the other way, every time you compromise, you're pulling out another block. Your tower might be getting taller, but it's getting shakier too.

The Inevitable Collapse

We all know how Jenga ends - with a crash and blocks all over the floor. Real life isn't always that dramatic, but the consequences can be way worse. All those little compromises? They add up:

• Those white lies might snowball into you being known as "that guy who can't be trusted".
• That shady business deal? It might come back to bite you in the butt, big time.
• And that debt? Before you know it, you're drowning in it.
• As for those "minor" infractions? They chip away at your self-respect, bit by bit.

The Lesson: Handle with Care

So what's the point of all this Jenga talk? It's pretty simple: be careful with your values, folks. Every choice you make, everything you do, it's like moving a block in your personal Jenga tower. Some moves might seem like no big deal at the time, but they all add up to how stable (or unstable) your life is.

This doesn't mean you should never take risks or change your mind about stuff. Heck, growing as a person often means shaking things up a bit. But it does mean being careful about the choices we make and thinking about where they might lead us down the road.

Building a Stable Tower

So, how do we use this Jenga metaphor to build a life that doesn't topple over at the slightest breeze?

1. Know your foundation: Take some time to think about what really matters to you. What are the blocks at the bottom of your tower?
2. Think before you pull: Before you do something that goes against your values, ask yourself if it's really worth it. Is that short-term gain worth making your whole tower wobble?
3. Shore up your base: Work on making your core values stronger. Read books, hang out with people who inspire you, practice what you preach in the little day-to-day stuff.
4. It's okay to rebuild: If you realize you've compromised too much, don't be afraid to start over. Sometimes you gotta go back to basics to build something that'll last.
5. Play the long game: Remember, life isn't a race to build the tallest tower as fast as you can. It's about building something that'll stand up to whatever life throws at it.

As we're all fumbling our way through this game called life, let's keep this Jenga thing in mind. Every decision, every compromise, every value we ignore - they're all blocks in our tower. Handle 'em carefully, think about your moves, and try to build a life that stands tall not just in height, but in being rock-solid and true to who you are.

So, what blocks are you moving around in your life's Jenga tower? And the million-dollar question: how stable is your foundation? Something to chew on, isn't it?