You are losing the game and don't even realize you are on the board. Your life is a chess game, but not one played elegantly on marble tables. Your game is played in silence and darkness, with pieces you don’t know how to move and decisions that come from fear rather than strategy. The worst part is, you don’t know who you are in this game: a pawn, a knight, a spectator, or the King. You are so busy trying to appear strong, intelligent, or charismatic that you have forgotten the most important thing.

Your goal is to survive. Your role is to exist with purpose. Your mission is to protect what is truly important. But you keep moving as if victory lies in moving forward without a goal, without direction, without yourself.

The Forgotten King

Listen carefully. A king doesn't have to move much to be powerful. He just needs to know who he is. But you don't know that. You wake up every day thinking you have something to prove to someone, to everyone. You live your life trying to control the board when you can't even control your own thoughts.

I'll say it again: you are the King. Not because of your strength or speed. You are the King because without you, the game ends. And yet, you have given your value to pieces that are here today and gone tomorrow. Do you really think that success is about being in control, being on all fronts, having all the answers? That's not strategy; that's noise. Real strategy begins in silence, in the ability to stand still when you don't need to move, in understanding that not everything that glitters on the board is important.

The Illusion of a Strong Offense

You've lived too long believing that demonstrating your strength makes you invincible. But tell me, how can you be strong if you can't defend your peace of mind? How high can you climb if you don't even know what you really want? The problem isn't a lack of success; the problem is a lack of direction. If you don't know what you're defending, you can be distracted by anything.

A good player doesn't start by looking at their opponent. He starts by knowing his king—his limits, his position, what's at stake. If you don't know who you are, you won't even know when you're losing. That's the question you should have asked yourself years ago: What are you defending? Don't tell me about your job, your image, or your reputation. That's air, that's smoke. What matters is what is invisible. Your mental health, your emotional balance, your value system, your purpose—that is your strength, that is what must not fall. Because when that falls, everything else becomes useless.

The Unseen Fortress

You ignore it, hide it, cover it up with empty goals and external recognition, as if success is applause, not inner confidence. As if the admiration of others brings peace. The truth is different. The world can applaud you while you are falling apart inside. What good is a powerful queen if your king is on the verge of collapse?

You've been playing this game as if you're invulnerable, as if you're a rook moving in straight lines without hesitation. But you're not a rook; you're the king. And the king moves slowly. The king watches. The king protects himself. The king wins not by attacking, but by resisting. He wins by knowing when to move forward and when to stay put. A king who runs mindlessly dies. Every time you betray yourself to fit in, you put your king in check. Every time you put the opinions of others above your own feelings, you leave your soul unprotected. You wonder why you can't find peace. It's simple. You haven't built an inner castle. You've built walls on the outside, but inside, everything is in ruins.

The Whispers of the Inner Saboteur

Your most dangerous enemy is not the one in front of you, but the one you let inside. Your unbridled thoughts, misunderstood emotions, unhealed wounds—that inner noise that sabotages you every time you're ready to take a step forward. This inner saboteur doesn't shout; it whispers. It tells you that you're not ready, that you'll fail, that it's better to stay where you are. And you listen because it sounds familiar.

But it's not you. You're the one hearing it. And if you're the one hearing it, you can change the message. True leadership doesn't start with managing others; it starts with managing your own mind. When you silence the voices of fear, you choose to act with clarity even in the midst of chaos. The chaos never goes away. What changes is your ability to navigate it, and that comes from within. The world applauds those who win, but it admires those who survive without losing themselves. Success without peace is just a cry with an echo, a crown that weighs more than it's worth.

Clarity as the Ultimate Weapon

Self-knowledge does not make you fragile; it makes you dangerous. When you know what you're not willing to lose, when you have clarity about who you are and what you will never allow, you become unpredictable to a world that thrives on manipulating those who have no roots. Look around you. Most people act out of fear, out of lack, out of a constant feeling that they are missing something. This makes them easy to control.

But there is one type of person who does not play by these rules: the one who has done the inner work, who has visited their shadows and made peace with them. Such a person cannot be subjugated by applause or intimidated by rejection because they already belong to themselves. There is a huge difference between those who seek power and those who seek clarity. The former are slaves to their hunger. The latter are free.

If you don't decide your life, others will do it for you. If you don't fill your life with purpose, the world will fill it with noise, consumption, and comparisons. Without realizing it, you'll live someone else's life. What's the point of winning a game by rules you didn't write? It's not a victory; it's embellished slavery.

Playing for Real

It’s not enough to know yourself; you have to take care of yourself. This means protecting your center, nourishing your mind, and filtering what goes into your head. The mind is fertile soil. What you plant there is what will grow. What are you sowing? Clarity or noise?

If you have listened to every word, it means something. It means your consciousness is pushing you to wake up. You are at a pivotal point where you either continue to live someone else's life or finally decide to take control of the board. The soul doesn't die from a single blow. It dies from a life without purpose, from ignoring what is important in favor of what is urgent.

Here's the last question you can't ignore: Will you continue to move mindlessly, or will you start playing for real? It's about meeting yourself and having the courage to stick with it. It’s about building yourself from the inside out, principle by principle. When you understand that, the board will stop scaring you. You're no longer playing to please or moving out of fear. You're playing to protect what's important.

Start today. Not with big moves, but with one simple step. Ask yourself with complete honesty: what am I neglecting? What should I defend with all my heart? When you do that, you will stop playing out of inertia. You will start playing with intention. And at that moment, even if you take just one step, you will gain more than those who move aimlessly. True victory is not in winning the game, but in not losing yourself.

References

• Frankl, V. E. (1959). Man's Search for Meaning. Beacon Press.

  This foundational work of logotherapy posits that the primary human drive is not pleasure, but the pursuit of what we find meaningful. Frankl argues from his own profound experiences that we cannot always control external events (the moves of other pieces on the board), but we can always choose our attitude and find meaning in our circumstances. This aligns with the article's core message of finding an inner purpose to defend ("the King") as the ultimate strategy for survival and psychological well-being.

• Jung, C. G. (1958). The Undiscovered Self. Routledge & Kegan Paul.

  In this concise book, Jung explores the critical importance of individual self-knowledge as a bulwark against mass-mindedness and external manipulation. He argues that modern individuals are often alienated from their inner selves, leading to a life without direction. The text directly supports the article's theme that one must "know the King" by confronting one's own inner workings, including the "shadow" aspects, to achieve true strength and avoid being a pawn to societal pressures and unconscious impulses.