Candy Crush Saga Life Lessons

If you have a smart phone, tablet or Facebook, you’ve probably played the game Candy Crush Saga. I fell prey to it about a month ago (thanks a lot Val!) using it to relax at the end of a long work day.  It’s fun, it’s relatively easy (or it was), it’s often frustrating and it has hidden rewards when you least expect it.  That’s if you play it mindlessly.  Once you begin to understand the game, everything changes.

As I was playing the game the other day, it reminded me that life is the same way.   It’s fun at times, often frustrating and has hidden rewards when you least expect it.  Once you understand the game of life, the strategies that help you design your life the way you want it, everything changes. 

In Candy Crush, random awards show up, candies that have varied powers to help you win the game.  In the beginning, I didn’t know where they came from or if I had any power to make them appear.  Then I watched.  Four in a row = striped candy.  T-shape = wrapped candy.  Five in a row – mega candy with all sorts of power. 

Once you learn how to create them, you get a big more control over the game.  You get to play with bumping the special candies into each other to really increase your abilities to win.  Great to know these strategies especially when time is running out. 

So many lessons for our lives in the random candies falling in a game.  Here’s what I came up with:

1. Just like the candy falling, events good or pad, people happy or otherwise, fall into our lives right from the start.  We can’t control what or who shows up.  We just have to keep playing the game of life.  What we can control is how we react to them.  We can get frustrated and give up, or figure things out and keep playing.
   
2. As we start to play (grow), we learn.  Three of a kind forms a row and it drops out. If we want to win the game, we must be looking to eliminate those things that stand in the way of success, whatever that means to us.
   
3. Jelly = stuck!  For many levels of the game, the goal is to remove the jelly.  In life, we need to come up strategies to help us get unstuck too.  We just need to gather the ones that work for us.
   
4. As we go through levels (grow up), life gets tougher. The good news is we get smarter – if we practice.  If we keep noticing what works, if we learn.  Learning is the key.  It always has been.  If we stay mindless we can still play the game and occasionally win but we don’t get as far as we could and it can be a very stressful journey.
   
5. Those special rewards can be repeated over and over once we figure out how to make them happen.  Some give you great power in the game just as in life. They’re like great strategies. You come into life without knowing the best ones for dealing with stress, relationships, health and money.  You can stumble on great ones every now and then and feel lucky. Or you can learn them from books, TV shows, from someone who’s figured them out and use them in your own life so that you take charge of how to make your life easier and more successful.
   
6. You can ask for help.  After you’re played a certain amount of time, the game has been designed to stop you.  Now their goal is to have you so hooked, you’ll pay to go to the next level.  Or you can ask a friend, usually on Facebook.  I love that.  I’ve never paid.  I can wait til it lets me play again.  I choose to be patient.  In fact, I’m grateful that it stops me so I don’t spend too long playing games no matter how much fun or additive they are.  I have a business to run and while I can justify a few minutes distraction, I certainly can’t let it use up too much time
   I haven’t asked a Facebook friend for help yet but I like knowing I could.  People would help me – at first.  As long as I helped them when they needed it and didn’t constantly pester them with requests.  Same as life.  Help a friend when you can but don’t take advantage of that friendship.
   
7. Don’t forget the goal.  In the game you’re looking for 3 of a kind, for special candies but if you forget the goal of the game, you lose.  And you lose quickly.  Whether it’s to remove all the jelly the candies are stuck in or to bring all the fruit home, you’ve got to keep your eye on the finish line.
   You can play the game of life with no goal but you won’t get where you want to go.  You’ll be blown about like an airplane without an autopilot or GPS.  Your life will be an endless game of maybe, an often frustrating one.
   But if you know your goal, if you learn and use strategies along the way, if you’re patient as obstacles pop  up – and  they will both in the game and in life – you can really enjoy the process as you go along the journey.

Fly the funny skies :)

I was on a flight two days after the events in Boston took place.  I wasn’t sure what security was going to be like but got there early enough just in case it was slower than usual.  Not bad, nothing excessive.  So far so good.

My flight was packed and I’m pretty sure people were a little more nervous than usual.  I was on my favorite airline – Southwest – and was on the plane in the first group, settling myself into an emergency exit window seat.

I’m sure the crew was also a bit more nervous that the week before.  How could they not be? They were dealing with the potential re-admittance of small knives on board and now the uncertainty of what the events in Boston might mean.

Here’s how they handled things – with humor.  The head flight attendant at the door was manning the microphone as passengers entered.  As each new group entered, he said things like, “See that empty seat right near you?  Sit down!”  “See that person pretending to be asleep so you won’t sit near them, climb over them and sit down!”  He got our attention to be sure.  People started smiling.  “We’re not leaving unless you sit down…and we really want to leave.”

As soon as everyone took their seat, he began the safety procedures speech.  I wish I had written it all down because it was fabulous.  You had to listen just to see what he was going to say next.  “We’re flying over water on this trip so in case we have a water landing, put this toilet seat shaped vest over your head, don’t blow it up til you get outside the plane and be sure to put your make-up on -  because if you’re wearing this vest, you WILL be on TV!” 

Now no one wants to think about what it would mean if you’re wearing a life preserver on a plane but we all giggled at that one.  He also said not to expect an emergency because if there was going to be one, the crew would have stayed in bed at the hotel that morning.

He reminded us that it was a smoke free flight and that those who chose to smoke would be escorted onto the wing for their rendition of “Gone With the Wind” or “Bye Bye Birdie”. 

As we neared the point where we were about to take off he said he was going to dim the cabin lights… “You’re getting sleepy…….”

I loved this guy and this airline.  They took what was a potentially stressful day and made it fun.  Instead of thinking of scary possibilities, we were chuckling along with him. 

We can all learn something from him.  The tougher the time, the more we need to use a little gentle humor to derail (deplane?) the stress.   Sometimes we make matters worse by ratcheting up the atmosphere when we actually have the chance to make it fun. 

I lived by this theory as a classroom teacher.  Kids don’t like math?  Use humor and fun as often as possible.  For the flight school I used to own, same thing.  We even adopted the motto “We make aviation fun!”  It didn’t interfere with our safety record or in the classroom with the importance of a good education but it did make it worth showing up for.

What stressful situation can you lighten by adding a dose of humor to it?  It’s really up to you… it’s your life, your flight…so buckle up and smile the stress away!

Boston Strong

What a week.  The world has seemed a bit upside down since the news at the Boston Marathon on Monday followed by the massive fire in West, Texas.  As someone who shares stress busting strategies, I would be remiss if I didn’t try to put out some words to help people who are overcome by the stress of these events as well as those who feel they could just use a boost.  

I recognize that there are some who use these events as platforms for their political issues, a chance to make their points about how America or the world in general is going to hell in a hand basket.  This is not for them unless they are open enough to consider alternate opinions about the world and people in general.

So here goes:

• Watch out for all or nothing statements especially in tough times.  All of the world is not going down the tubes right now.  There’s 7 billion of us and most of us are pretty nice.  It’s not true that nothing will ever change.  These acts are perpetrated by one or two people to date.  And almost anyone can change if they want to.
  
• Stay away from the 24/7 news and constant FB and Twitter updates if it’s becoming too much for you.  I did this 10 years after 9/11 watching all the shows about the heroism to honor those I didn’t know about during that tragic time.  It almost took me down.  Step away.  And make sure your kids do too.
  
• Focus on the good that’s happening during these events.
  
• People who walked toward those injured
  
• First responders who do this kind of work and risk their own lives in the process
  
• The medical staff who saved lives that day and continues to do extraordinary work helping those who need it
  
• The swiftness with which the perpetrators have been identified and as of this writing, the second one is about to be captured.  As difficult as this all is, if the search had lasted for weeks or month, the uncertainty would have been crippling
  
• The technology we have that’s allowed us to stay informed especially social media and the technology that allowed them to be caught.
  
• The responsible media members who keep saying that we’re on 5 second delay to prevent sending out disturbing video, the reminder that we must be careful not to jump to conclusions, that are sharing info during rapidly evolving circumstances.  I can’t imagine how they can even make sense in the long hours and constant influx of new information
  
• How extra-ordinary the Boston police, the state police, the FBI, the Governor and the Mayor have been to the media who are doing their job and the citizens of greater Boston
  
• How cooperative the citizens of greater Boston have been
  
• Watch your thoughts during times like this.  Most stress is brought on by a specific thought you have.  When you catch yourself having a negative thought, try to shift it to something you’re grateful for.  Brain research tells us that you can’t think the two at the same time.
  
• Do something physical if the stress starts to build up.  Breathe deeply at least 3 times every 90 minutes.  Research shows like it helps de-stress the brain.  Get up and stretch and move.  Muscles get tight when you’re stressed.
  
• Seek out friends/ family if they can help you process everything.
  
• Keep busy doing something you love.
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• Get help from professionals if you’re really stressed.  You’re worth it.

We’ll get through this.  We’re resilient we humans.  Let me close with a quote attributed to Ghandi that I saw on Facebook yesterday. “You must not lose faith in humanity.  Humanity is the ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”  We are the ocean, the beautiful ocean.