The Deck of Life: Playing The Card(s) You're Dealt

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Poker, you’d agree with me, shares some parallels with life. In Poker, each player is dealt a random selection of cards. Players don’t have the luxury of choosing their cards; they aren’t responsible for the cards they’ve been dealt, just for how they play them. Some get dealt a great hand. Others take an average or even poor hand. Those dealt a poor hand can lament their hard luck, or they can do the best with the cards in their possession. Life’s a bit like that as well. Nature imposes on human beings all sorts of inequalities. Some are born rich, others are born poor, some are born into abundance, others into shortage and poverty.

Life isn't even remotely fair. It can unleash significant hardship on those that least deserve it and reward those that least merit it. No one gets to choose the circumstances into which they are born, we are only responsible for how we choose to live our lives. To be sure, life is cruelly unfair; a tangled mess of the good, the bad and the ugly. But it is what it is. You can either learn to deal with whatever it is that life throws at you and work with or around it, or wallow in self-pity and complain about life’s harsh unfairness. The choice is yours.

My sense is that whining about everything that is not right in life is a needless waste of time and happiness because it doesn’t solve the problem. In fact, chances are that if the deck of cards (opportunities and challenges) are reshuffled and redistributed, you could be dealt a far worse hand. Far worse hand? No, thank you! So, embrace or, at the very least, accept that which you have been apportioned and work it to the best of your abilities, whilst not being distracted by whatever cards are in someone else’s hand. It is very important to play the hand that you are dealt well. Doing the best you can with what you have is always your best way out of whatever situation you find yourself.

We all have our hands to play, good or bad. What is in yours at the moment? Have you got the Ace of Spades or have you been dealt a poor hand? What is your next play? Do you have a clue what to do with that hand? Anybody familiar with cards knows the luck is in the cards, but the skill is in the player. Some get dealt a great hand and still squander it, others take an average or even poor hand, and work it into a winner. It doesn’t matter how good your cards are, if they are not judiciously utilized they will never be good enough. Life’s unfairness does not hold us back, neither does its generosity in and of itself prosper us. We are held back or moved forward by the choices we make.

You may not fancy your deck (how life has treated you thus far) but remember that not all your cards are worthless (your situation, however bad, is not irredeemable). Believe it or not, you have cards that can help you win in life, although it may not be obvious that you do. And you can indeed win big in life, however disadvantaged you think you may be. The key is to look at your deck carefully. Identify your high cards and your low cards (strengths and weaknesses). Figure out what you have for structure (your plan), maintain your composure (focus), observe your surrounding (seek out opportunities) and play your best game (give life your best shot). Never let the cards work you, never let the situation overwhelm you.

To a great extent, you are in control of your cards (life) but in order to stand any chance of winning, you must first have the desire to win - regardless of your circumstances - and be able to summon the courage to change the game. It's not about what hand you've been dealt, but what cards you choose to put down. It’s not about how unfair life has been to you but what efforts you marshal to improve your condition. So, in the end, you deal with whatever it is that life has thrown in your direction as best you can, with the resources at your disposal. If moaning is not an option, then, you must work through the hand you’ve been dealt determinedly and skilfully, and hope for the best. If you are reading this piece, are negotiating one challenge or the other but your resolve to excel is unruffled, then, well played!