The game of chess is quite fascinating. In it, two players with the exact same pieces battle to either a stalemate (tie) or until one player defeats the other via ‘checkmate’. If you are interested in learning more about chess, go to this chess guide. The picture you see here is a ‘pawn’. In chess, you start with eight of them. They are the most numerous piece, and they are usually the most quickly to be taken by your opponent. In addition to that, the pawn is limited in its mobility, moving only forward, and only diagonally to take an opponents piece. The pawn has the special ability in that if it reaches the end of the chess board to the opponents side, it can turn into a queen (the most powerful chess piece).
That is Why the Pawns Go First
In the movie, ‘X-Men 3′, Magneto, one of the main villains makes a statement towards the end of the movie when his gang of mutants is about to battle a group of soldiers and police with weapons able to remove their mutant powers. I paraphrase Magneto here, but he says something to the extent of ‘In Chess, the Pawns Go First‘. This is in reference to the numerous pawns one starts with in chess, and the pawns being used more as a way to open the match and see what your opponent is doing.
What the Bigger Pieces Do
Pawns, while numerous, do not have the capabilities of the other chess pieces. Rooks can move side to side or forward until a piece is in the way. Bishops diagonally. Knights can jump around. The Queen can move in all directions. The lone king can move to any adjacent square that does not put it in ‘check’. Check forces the king to move, or get defended by another chess piece. The bigger pieces have more capability.
What separates the two?
The distinguishment between pawns and the other chess pieces is obvious, once you learn the game of chess. One thing that stands out to me is the sheer number of pawns. Again, there are eight of them. The next numerous pieces are the rooks, knights, and bishops, of which there are only two each. The pawns are limited in what they are able to do. The rest of the chess pieces can do much more. What separates the two is what they are able to do.
What Are You?
As life moves forward for each of us, a parallel can be seen between individuals and what chess piece they might be. The reality is that most people are pawns. This does not mean you are insignificant, expendable, or worthless. In fact, there are probably a few levels of being a pawn and it just means you are like most other people. I’d like to categorize what qualifies one to be in this category.
- You live life day to day, but don’t have a real plan for your entire life.
- You see the bad before you see the good.
- You usually have trouble getting motivated to do much of anything.
- You are content as long as you have a place to sleep and food to eat.
- You are quick to criticize and judge other people.
- You have trouble focusing for more than a short period of time.
- You don’t like trying anything new.
- You are generally a selfish person.
- When things get difficult, or results are not seen, you stop trying.
- You don’t spend much time on your emotional, physical, and spiritual health.
Most regular people have many of these traits. And this does not mean that those people do not possess good qualities. I highlight these specific ones here to point out what is almost universal amongst the majority of people in the world. As I said, these things don’t make for a bad person. If you think of the world as a chess board, then the pawns of the world have these characteristics. And there will always be many ‘pawns’. But there are also chess pieces with more. These are the kings, queens, knights, bishops, and rooks of the world. Here is a list of some of their qualities.
- You have a clear idea of where your life is going and what your future holds.
- Though you recognize the bad in the world, the good far outweighs it.
- You are motivated to accomplish many things.
- You are not content with just the basics of life. You want the most out of life that you can get.
- You seek first to understand others before making judgments.
- You prepare well beforehand and have a razor sharp focus.
- You love trying new things and new adventures, regardless if they succeed or not.
- You think of others constantly.
- When things get difficult, you rev up your engine and give even more effort.
- You constantly are refining your emotional, physical, and spiritual health.
While these lists contain many things, I can see almost a ‘smoking gun’, that separates regular people from those who achieve great success in life. And that is this:
Those who achieve success in life are motivated, driven, and passionate about what they do. They spend the necessary time trying, tweaking, and moving forward with what they are seeking to do. They do not give up, and while the average person is watching TV or bored, the successful person is busy creating their legacy in the world.
This sums it up. The truly successful, and I would even say happy, are constantly engaged in a good cause. There is no wasted time. There is no boredom. There is a life with purpose. There is hard work, smart work, and long hours. But this is what separates one from being insignificant. It is what is done with the time you have. Make a choice to start spending your time doing worthwhile things, and I can promise that you will stop feeling insignificant!
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