Life is a game. Human beings love playing games, status games.

Consciously or unconsciously, humans love playing games.

Everyone alive is playing a game. A game who’s hidden rules are built into us and it silently directs our thoughts, beliefs and actions.

This game is inside us, this game is us, we cannot help but play.

No matter where you may travel, from rural villages in the Eastern Cape to urban cities in Johannesburg, you will find humans forming groups and playing for status.

In the developed world, we play political games, religious games, corporate games, sports games, legal games, fashion games, hobby games, computer games, title games, social media games. The variety feels infinite.

Within these groups, we strive for individual status. Which cool people do you personally know, which hot places do you go to, which gadget do you use, which clothing label do you wear, what title do you by at work or in the community?

Not only do we strive to rank high within our chosen status groups but our groups are also fiercely competing with other groups for higher status.

Not only do we personally want a higher status with our group, but we also want our group to have a higher status in relation to other groups.

Political parties battle other political parties.

Countries battle other countries.

Companies battle other companies.

Soccer teams battle other soccer teams.

When our groups win these battles, we individually feel happy. When they lose, we feel unhappy.

These games form our identity. We become the games we play.

We call ourselves using the names of our groups. We call ourselves using the titles we have obtained. We become our positions at work, or in our communities.

It is all about status games.

It is important to understand that this hunger for status, this desire to rank high on the status levels, is a game.

We really don’t have to play these games to feel like our lives matter.

Our happiness does not depend on rankings and status games.

We are not our work. We are not our soccer teams, or political parties. We are not brands.

We can be a content without subjecting ourselves to games.

We can define human life and better able to meet it’s challenges by living lives of meaning, safety and happiness.

We can chose to live a life of more meaning and less games.