Play In Your League

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

-1 Corinthians 13:11

As we go through life we enter in and out of leagues. They are kind of like stages of life but are not necessarily linear. They are determined by things like experiences and maturity. There is no competition in these leagues and one league is not better than another league. You will just be part of a league at a given time in your life, whether you like it or not.

For example, here are a few leagues.

I understand these are generalities and there are always exceptions and these are relative. The point is that these leagues are different and change with time, age, experiences, relationships, jobs and many other things.

So why is this important?

This is important because we all need to learn to “play in our league”. Someone in the Mid-Career with Spouse and Kids league should not try to play in the College league and vice versa. There are many leagues of life and we need to look around and figure out what league you are currently in and play within it. Once you are in a league, it’s not easy to quickly change.

Someone in the Early Career league has more free time and less responsibilities so they have those benefits. If you are in the Mid-Career league with a family, you have the benefits of more experience and more money. Each has their pros and cons depending on your perspective.

One lesson in all of this is to avoid comparing the league you’re currently in with someone in a different league. All leagues are different and any comparison will be unfair. It’s easy for comparing to turn into envy, which never turns out well.

Just play in your league and give it your all and be happy with what you have.