Passive Income Blog

A great piece worth pondering, related to this previous post.  The following was written by a friend of mine, Chad Cameron…

I have a good friend who is an event planner. One if her favorite events she told me in enthusiastically great detail was the planning of a murder mystery dinner party.  A fun loving family hired her to plan the and get all the necessities for the party. There was catered food, appropriate costumes to acquire, a really great venue to rent …… and a murder to plan.

My friend did an amazing job of planning, organizing and orchestrating the entire evening for the large family. The party was a smash hit for all. Upon arrival everyone received an envelope. Inside the envelope was a note that gave them their identity for the evening and just enough about their role and the other characters to set the stage for an evening filled with mystery and murder. Each person was told who they were to be that evening and where they fit in the fictional family. Costumes were donned and the evening began.

This event was one part play and one part improvisation.  As the party progressed everyone knew they were part of the entertainment although they did not know the bigger picture. They only knew details like you will meet your brother Charles Stanley III in the library for a cup of tea promptly at 9:10 p.m.

Everyone knew someone was going to die that night.

Various events went on during the evening. Some seemed perfectly normal and some seemed rather random. Everyone knew there would be a victim and a murderer. The way this event was choreographed the victim and the murderer did not know that part of their role until absolutely necessary. This way they could enjoy most of the suspense that night too.

The fun part was trying to piece the events of the evening together and wondering if you were going to be victim/murderer (or neither) knowing full well you have no choice in the matter. The evening had already been planned out in advance by the event planner. Your job was just to show up, play your part and enjoy watching the eventful evening to unfold. Some things were in your awareness and a lot were not.

So you might be asking yourself right about now so what?  Why do I care about a murder mystery?

Consider all the parallels with the Leap philosophy.  Consider how many ways this analogy actually relates to your life if you choose to interpret it this way:

• It was all designed to be fun!
• It has all been prearranged for your enjoyment.
• You made a conscious decision to play the game before it started.
• You are given an identity when the game started and you accepted it to play the game.
• You don’t know what’s going to happen… will you be the murderer or the victim? Or neither?
• Surprises make the game work and make it fun.
• Within the game the consequences are huge: This is life and death… and you still played because you think of it as fun.
• No one playing the game said “Hey I don’t want to play a game where someone dies”
• You know you are not really going to “die”… it’s just a game.
• You know whoever the victim is isn’t going to die and they are just playing the part… at the end of the evening everyone goes home happy.
• You know the murderer is just playing their part too… after all what is a murder mystery without a murderer?!

1. What would life be like if you could apply this analogy to your everyday life?
2. Do you think you would be empowered? Peaceful?
3. Would you be able to enjoy each moment as it is?
4. Do you think it would shift your experience of life?

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