Snakes and Ladders

Of course, sometimes it's trickier than that.
Sometimes life is just a plod. Sometimes it's wading through treacle.
How do you cope with that?..

Well.... you plod.

It doesn't matter how quickly or slowly, you just do what you can. Plod to the beat of a funereal march if you want but plod on anyway.
And do it because well, because that's your job today. That's your privilege and your duty.

Life's a game of roulette.
And as every medical student who goes to the local casino occasionally on a Friday night, even if it is largely because they used to give you a free egg mayonnaise sandwich, realises, there is one simple truth.
You can be wiped out.

All you need is eight reds in a row and a positive feeling of inevitability towards black.
And the run of bad luck can continue.
It can even go on dialling up red forever. Every spin until the end of time itself could come up red.
Nothing in the laws of nature prevent that.
And there isn't a soul in the universe that wouldn't crumble at it.

But ...of course we have other options, because we don't have to play that game today.
We don't have to play it tomorrow either.
That's why god invented Blackjack.

We can leverage other inspirations - anything from a novel, a photo, an old school exercise book, a word, a play, a joke, a wink.
The trigger might come from buying a pint of milk at the shops or a bun at the bakery.
Or from an advert. A recipe. Youtube.
Interaction of any and every kind.

We don't have to play the same game over and over again.
Your new direction might come from a quote.
Your chink of light from an anecdote or a memory. Perhaps one that reminds you it is an idiot who does the same thing over and over again and expects different results.

Remind yourself and the spell is starting to bend.
Remind yourself again and look, it's breaking.

You can change the game.
You can always return later, rewrite the rules and kick its arse.

You've left old routines behind before.
Games that you loved that lie in the bin, on eBay, under the bed. You didn't even deliberately retire them. It just happened. You just moved on.
Time moved on.
Life moved on.
You could do it then couldn't you? Without even thinking.
You didn't really believe the deskilling myth did you? That's just a lie invented so blue sky thinkers can sell training videos.

There are some days when the sun will shine, the work gets done as though effortless and you could top it all off with running a steeplechase naked over a field of five bar gates and not spill your Pimm's.
And there are some days when you just have to plod.
Ploddy ploddy plod.
And you have other decisions – plod alone or drag someone into the mud with you.
These are decisions only you can make.

So mix up your unique recipe because there are really no metaphors here. Throw in as many little links of inspiration as you can to join the loose ends. Keep plodding and point your nose towards the spring.

In these times, you need to be your own physician.
Just make sure the doctor is in.
Because the monsters are coming anyway.