5 Universal Life Lessons You Can Surprisingly Learn From Candy Crush

I know I should have written this post ages ago but I was busy…err…crushing candies. Yes, I’m one of the more recent ones to hop on to the bandwagon and I am quite unapologetic about it too. Do I hear a condescending tch tch? Don’t be too quick to judge! If you have been looking down upon the blooming breed of candy crushers with pity, you have probably been missing out on life’s most profound lessons hidden under heaps of vibrant, gleaming candies.

PS: If you are not a player, you will totally not get this post.

Problems come in varied forms.

Just like the multi-colored and multi-shaped candies that trickle down and plonk themselves into disorderly rows. And yet, you can find order within the chaos and generate the most score-spiking candy combinations and bump them against each other. So whether it is lemons or candies (or lemon-flavored candies), life is indeed what you make of it.

You can count on strangers.

People you have never met or barely know (read: random FB connections) will not hesitate to gift you an extra life or help you unlock a level. These noble gestures do foster a sense of camaraderie and community bonding, and they instill a faint hope that these folks might actually step up for you in the face of a REAL crisis. Trust me, optimism is a good feeling.

Breaks (from anything) are necessary.

A true-blue CC addict would go on for days without food, water or sleep. The makers of the game probably had an inkling of this, which is why players get only 5 lives at a time, unless they choose to beg or buy (btw, we don’t send those requests – they go out on their own). Once these are exhausted, the player is forced to take a break from his zombie like state and focus (only for a little while, till the lives “fill up”) on the more mundane aspects of life such as work, family and pre-CC hobbies. Regardless of what you are doing, a break is necessary – this is especially important if you are doing nothing.

You can buy your way out of anything.

Stuck with a difficult level? You can either slave your way through it, which may take days or even weeks, or just cough up some cash and wiggle your way past it. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Yep, that’s life and everything can be bought. Not fair on those who can’t afford to pay through the toughies, but guess it was never meant to be, eh?

Know that feeling when you make a hasty move and realize that you missed out on an awesome special candy opportunity? Yes, life gives you chances but overenthusiasm often comes in the way. Keep a look around and tread carefully. Your big breakthrough may be sitting right under your nose – it would be a pity if you fail to see it.

There is no such thing as permanent failure.

Your smartphone screen may flash “YOU FAILED!” in big, bold letters when you fail to clear a level but you know you will get another chance to pull through – always.  So, like a tenacious little ant, you keep going at it. That’s precisely what you need to do in every other area of your life, because there is always another chance. Sometimes it may not look like it, but there is. Always.