Life is a great ccg

I like to play collectible card games which are more commonly called ccg's. Typically you and an opponent each have a deck of cards and a life total. The object is usually to whittle your opponent's life down to 0 before he does the same to you.

The reason I like ccg's so much is that there are a lot correlations between concepts in the game and concepts in real life. I like to pretend that my opponent IS life and that his deck is all the challenges that life likes to throw my way and that my cards are the solutions to those challenges.

Assuming you each have access to all of the cards, a reasonable amount of intelligence, and the same level of skill at the game,  you each choose how difficult of an opponent you are for the other.

When building a deck you should have a theme in mind that takes advantage of the strengths of the cards that you are playing and minimizes the weakness. Synergy and efficiency are key. The more ways in which you can use each card and the more situations and combinations in which you can make it useful the better.

You should plan things in your life the same way. Form strategies that take advantage of your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Always look for new and better ways to use the tools that you have at your command.

If every play you make is as efficient as possible and your opponent does not play efficiently you will certainly win. But in order for this to happen, both in life and in a ccg you need be constantly experimenting and tweaking your strategy.

There are times in a ccg where it is better to play a creature or a spell before an attack and times where it is better to do so afterwards. Knowing when to do which can often mean the difference between victory and defeat.  Everyday life is the same way. There are times where it is good to implement new thoughts and ideas immediately and times where it is a good idea to wait till after a specific thing happens.

But you need to constantly be experimenting, tweaking things and taking risks. For one, you do not learn anything new by following the same strategy all the time. The same strategy will not work all the time even against the same opponent. Also, it is important to experience failure because winning does not suggest a need for improvement nor does it give you ides for how to improve. Losing does. If you are willing to look, losing shows you exactly where you are weak. Then you can determine what new ideas to try instead.

Over time you will learn what plays to make when and what plays not to make. You will learn what opponents are weak to which strategies. Eventually,  you can get good enough that your opponent can be looking down his nose at you from across the table, certain of your defeat, and with a simple smile you can throw down your ace in the hole and snatch victory from him.

When this happens consistently you have mastered the game, be it ccg or life.