Game of Life Series: Ep 5 Raising the Stakes

So here we are again for a special rendition of The Game of Life Series. Why is it special? Well we have officially “Raised the Stakes” for LaPharaoh.

Despite LaPharaoh’s recent chess success I happened to notice that his focus was beginning to change some. I would not go as far as to say he’s disinterested but it does appear his motivation has waned to some degree.

I juggled this around in my head a bit, wondering what could have changed in such a short time. A few possible reasons surfaced as to why this may have occurred.

(1) He’s 7 years old (this level of focus and mental dexterity is not exactly a given at his age).

(2) Chess is mentally taxing (We implement various challenges for LaPharaoh, whether it’s playing daily, taking notations, and/or studying past games and it can pile up).

(3) When success comes fast and relatively easy one may not be as motivated to practice & continue to create good habits.

(4) The more ‘a thing’ feels like work, the more aware we become of the responsibilities and limitations associated therewith.

*Bonus* (5) Being born with a retrograde Mercury in the mutable sign of Sagittarius can definitely point to the need for more effort to keep the mind focused on one solitary thing for extended periods of time.

Taking all these factors into account, now we can discuss solutions

As proactive parents we are always searching for creative ways to incentivize right time, right action. LaPharaoh is at the stage now where we are beginning to have the conversation about money, value, saving, investments and the likes. So in the spirit of learning through relating we decided to raise the stakes a bit.

It is resolved that moving forward each chess match LaPharaoh wins against Daddy will trigger a distribution from Our Trippy Tribe Family Trust and earn him $1 USD or its equivalent in a currency of our choosing. When we presented this proposal to him to get some feedback he was all in, that’s a win-win!

And just like that, with an Amazon purchase of this wonderful Chess Bank here and a contract with the Trust for daily scheduled games we have set the stage for one of LaPharaoh’s first official money making endeavors.

This is new territory for Our Trippy Tribe but we are hoping this helps provide some added motivation for LaPharaoh to put his best effort forward and focus on making his next move his best move each and every time out.

So it is settled, until next time…Check ya later 😉

P.S I reserve the right to petition the board for a renegotiation of the original terms of this contract after 6 months, I can’t have LaPharaoh hustling me and siphoning all the cash away.