Improving Life through Sudoku Mastery

Life and Sudoku Have More in Common than You Think

Dec 18, 2008 Mario Carini

Sudoku has simple rules, but like life there are no easy solutions. So try your hand at a puzzle today and see how close the game resembles your life.

Sudoku. It's one of the most popular puzzle games found in all the major newspapers and enjoyed by millions as they fill in 9 rows, 9 columns and 9 squares with the numbers 1 to 9 without repeating any one number. Sudoku is a challenge, mildly addictive and can be simple to devilishly complex.

Sudoku is just a game, much like chess and checkers, yet it offers some valuable lessons when it comes to life and living. Let's look at a few:

The Rules

Easy to understand, hard to master. To live life all you need is to breathe. That's easy. The hard part comes when you have to turn your life into something memorable for yourself and others. Unfortunately, this isn't easy to master.

Logical Deduction

Before you fill a square with any number you need to look at the surrounding filled in squares and infer the possible numbers that best fit into that empty square. Life is the same. Your experience, your background and education all determine how the numbers fall into place. That takes some attention to the goal you've set for yourself and how you plan to get there. You need to know the best step (read that square) to take before reaching a goal.

FocusThe moment your mind wanders, the more chances you have of making a mistake and filling in a square with the wrong number. With Sudoku you don't discover that until several moves later when a single number repeats itself. Sudoku helps center your mind and so it is with life. You need to center your thoughts on the goal and avoid the distractions that can lead you down the wrong road.

The Permutations

Any number from 1 to 9 can fill a square in a random pattern. But there is only one solution, like trying to solve a Rubik's cube. Similarly, success in life can be achieved in many ways since we are all different. But there is only one right road for you. You can emulate a famous personality but if you try to be like them, you will not succeed as your riddle is a personal one and can only be solved by you. Achieving the goal is uniquely yours.

Patience

By the mere act of paying attention you can solve the most complex Sudoku puzzle. Depending on the level of difficulty it may take you anywhere from a few minutes to an hour to solve one. For that you need to foster patience. And patience is the key to solving life's riddles. Though advertising would have you believe differently, there is no easy way to success. It comes with work. Sudoku demands patience. If there's one difference between Sudoku and your life, you can't throw out your life and call it quits.

Impossible Doesn't Apply

No matter how difficult a game of Sudoku appears, you can solve the most diabolical riddle. No matter what the challenge you face in this life, there is always a solution. It just means you have to plug away, try different avenues until the puzzle is solved. Life throws obstacles in your way. Your job is to work around those obstacles and find a solution over, under or through your life's problem.

So the next time you try your hand on a Sudoku puzzle, think a moment on that simple box of 81 squares and how filling them has a lot to do with your life.

The copyright of the article Improving Life through Sudoku Mastery in Personal Development is owned by Mario Carini. Permission to republish Improving Life through Sudoku Mastery in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.