Thank you to everyone who reached out after the last Podcast, the love and support was overwhelming and I'm so grateful for all of you listening.
On this episode I'll be putting my experience with divorce and depression in the context of Playing the Games of Life. The plural of "Games" is NOT a typo. We often think it's a single game, but after replaying the game of Yahtzee for the first time in over 25 years, I realized that life is not one game, but a collection of games.
Are you not enjoying the game of Life? Have you tried moving your focus to playing one of the many other games available? Perhaps the "Game of Six Pack Abs" frustrates you, how about playing the "Game of Movement for Energy" instead? Perhaps you're already way ahead in the game of "Money" and it's now boring, so move to the game of "service".
What game of life frustrates you most? Which game lights you up?
Got a question or comment about the show? E-mail me at podcast@justinwenck.com. Remember to subscribe so you don't miss the next episode! Then connect with me at JustinWenck.com, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn!
Check out my best-selling book "Engineered to Love: Going Beyond Success to Fulfillment" also available on Audiobook on all streaming platforms! Go tohttps://www.engineeredtolove.com/to learn more!
Got a question or comment about the show? E-mail me at podcast@justinwenck.com.
Welcome to the engineering emotions and energy podcast. I'm your host, Justin Wenck. So, first want to start the show off with a big, heartfelt thank you to all the people that listened to the last episode where I was talking, talked about my net, sort of the, what had been going through kind of the past year with my depression and getting divorced. I was really just overwhelmed with how many people reached out with, you know, support, you know, we're just kind of going like, hey, I've been there too, thanks for sharing, really was very, very touching. Yeah, so really, thank you to everyone. And then also thanks, you know, to all of you that, that just listened as well. Because I know, I've, I don't know if there's ever been a show where I've reached out to the host or anybody. So just just by listening, you know, your support this felt and appreciated, and really was just just awesome. So thank you. And really helps me, you know, continue to do what I'm doing and get my message out and do what I can to, you know, help other people along the way. Because really, you know, if we can each just help each other take one one more step than we otherwise would. Collectively, we're going to be much, much further along. So on today's show, I want to talk about playing the games of life. And I'm not the game of life, not where you know, you're that old board game. But this was inspired by a board game. And I'll talk about that soon. And I'm going to tie in how last episode and what I've been going through how I, one of the ways I'm seeing this, and seeing these different things, as these are just different games in life that we play. So to start off, and this is all going to tie together and make a lot of sense. So I encourage you to keep listening because you'll get a lot out of it. And it'll all make sense. In the end, I promise. So just just hang out. So I'm staying with my friend, good friend from high school, he was actually my best man at my, at my wedding when I got married just a little over two years ago. And staying with him, his wife and his son who's about about 10. And they like to they like to play games like board games. So we played like, extreme uno one night, we played kids against humanity, which I guess is a child friendly version of Cards Against Humanity. And the other night, we played Yahtzee because I think we've gone through most of the games. And I'll be honest, I've played Yahtzee. But I was probably the the kids age last time I played. So it's probably over 25 years ago. And when I got playing, I realized why it's been so long it is so if you're not familiar with Yahtzee, congratulations. It's it's not a great game. But there was a lot there were some learning lessons. So let me describe a little bit of the game of Yahtzee. So it's a game played with dice. Five, five die. Five dice dice is Mrs. Mrs. gooses. geese is five die. And the you roll them and see see what you get. And then it's it's a little bit like poker where you're trying to get various hands, right. So one of the one of the things that you can get to score well on yatse is the full house, which in poker is three of one kind to have another kind. So if you get three die, or one number and to die, that's also a full house in Yahtzee. And so let's say you got a three day came up with, you know, all threes, you'd be able to save those, and you would get a chance to have two more roles with the remaining dye to try to complete your full house. So it there's a lot of luck involved. But there's also some skill, the skill is deciding which sub game you want to play in Yahtzee. So again, for those of you lucky enough not to be knowledgeable of what a yachtie is. A yachtie is when you get all five dice to have the exact same number. So that'd be like five sixes or five fives, five of all the same number. And that has the highest point value. So you usually go I want the Yachty I want the Yachty but it's also the most difficult to get. And the way to win the game of Yahtzee is not just to get a yachtie. It's to have the highest points overall. And you get the highest points overall, by making the most out of all the various games. So there's games that in the sub games of Yahtzee of just like, well, how many ones did you get? How many twos did you get? How many threes? Did you get? A small, straight? Did you get a large, straight? So there's all these various games. And at at one point, the, my friend's son was getting like really hung up on I believe he was trying to get like a full full house. And he wanted to do a fours, and he just didn't get fours. And so you just got fixated on how fours weren't coming up. He's like, I don't like this game. I don't like this game. Now. How? How many people do you know? Or maybe perhaps you're one of these people, at least at some point your life? I've said like, a life just sucks. I just don't like it. Now, is it really the game of life that we don't like? Or are we focusing too much on the wrong sub game in life, because when, when this child was preoccupied with getting a full house with fours, he was missing out on all these great opportunities for the other games, that he could have just decided to focus on the playing instead, like the game of getting a straight or the game of maximizing the number of twos. But because you're so fixated on the one game, he was missing out on all this other opportunity. And so it seemed like Yahtzee was no good. Really, it was just this one sub game and Yahtzee. So have you been putting too much focus on a particular game in life, that it's ruining all of life, when really, if maybe you pivoted from the game of six pack abs to just the game of let me move so that I feel more energetic? Or perhaps like you've already maxed out the game will get a shit ton of money. And so maybe it's time to pivot and play the game of, well, how can I serve other people. So that's what I learned from playing the game of Yahtzee, which I really have no interest in playing that game ever again, I feel like I've learned the lesson I needed from the game of Yahtzee. And I feel like, in a certain way, I'd kind of gotten the lessons that were required from playing the game of being married, and the game of try to try to force a technical career where, you know, it's like, I enjoy the technical career, yet, in some ways, I'm fully satisfied with it. And I'm now wanting to, you know, that just do that, but focus more on the game of serving and the game of helping people the aim of being a benefit. So really, it was when I was not letting go of those games, and not allowing myself to play these so many other amazing variety of games. And this whole game of life. That's what you know, caused the depression, that's what, you know, made it so challenging to, you know, handle handle life, because, like, I was getting the messages like a you've, you've gotten, you've got this, go do something else. Try one of the other games, there's so many games, you've, you know, you don't have an infinite amount of time here. But we do get a pretty good amount of time. So perhaps if there's something that's just not feeling, right, maybe you've already mastered that, or maybe it just doesn't interest us enough. Right game right now. And that's okay. So, I'd be really interested, you know, if you want to comment here, or email me podcast at Justin Wenck. Calm, what's, what's the game in life that, like, you're just super annoyed with? Or just like, I can't handle this anymore. I don't want to play I want to opt out. On the other hand, what is a game in life that just lights you up? Where you're just like, Oh, I want to play this more. I want to play want to play the game of scuba diving. I say scuba diving, because tomorrow morning, I'm flying to go on a week of scuba diving. So I just got certified in on that. Just in February. I got my underwater, certification scuba. And now I'm actually going to get to go someplace tropical and scuba dive. So the next podcast recording will be done from Roatan Honduras has a so look forward to that. And you might be wondering, like What's all this talk of games? What's all this talk of games and one of my great one of the teachers that I have a lot of respect for he really got me going into a lot of the personal development stuff is teacher Joshua pellicer. And his the way he got started was you know, help helping men get over their their shyness, fear of talking And women, because about 10 years ago, I was, you know, very shy, and I needed the help. So I got the hope. And he said he one of the things that he said he found out is that there effectively is in life, even though there's a bunch of games, no games there, there are no games that are winnable. There's no winning anything. Just think of anything you've ever done in life. Did you ever, quote unquote, win? was it done and you got the prize, they just keep going. And so the key is to pick a game that you enjoy playing, just because you enjoy playing it, play with all your heart, and enjoy it yet. Don't be attached to the outcome. Because, again, there is no winning. So what again? What is it if you're too focused on winning? It's it's a losing strategy, because ultimately, there is no winning. So pick game you enjoy playing once you no longer enjoy playing the game. Maybe it's time to find another game to play. And there's probably only as many games to play as there are people ideas, possibilities. So that's all we got for today. Again, thanks so much. appreciate all the support. And you know, share this podcast with a friend. Or maybe share it with someone you're not friends with. Please subscribe, you know, rate of five stars if you if you're like, this podcast sucks, like what happened to Justin's audio quality. It's because I'm traveling, I didn't bring my you know, nice Deluxe studio quality mic, as I'm traveling. So I'm doing the best I can with what I got. Hopefully you're enjoying the content. So if you got you want to complain, feel free to play, just, you know, shoot me an email, shoot me an email, don't put that in the review. five star reviews preferred. And you know, I'm on all the social media stuff. So find me there connect Justin Wenck, w e and ck. And also subscribe to our mailing lists at Justin wenck.com. I don't really send much out I don't even know I don't know if I've actually sent a newsletter out. I'll probably we'll see if I get to it. Because gonna be busy traveling. 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