Gaming has taught me many things. The masses always discuss the adverse effect gaming has on kids, but there are a lot of things to be learned from gaming. Apart from the psychological impacts that have been proven through many studies, there are a lot of things that can be seen as lessons. One of them is how not giving up can eventually help you succeed.
How many times have we thought of doing something, even got up once, maybe done it halfway, then got distracted or lazy, and left it unfinished? Probably you have a new start-up idea in your head but you got stuck in the planning phase, and you decided to quit because you were not stubborn enough to make it work! Or maybe you wanted to start a new health routine, but waking up early in the morning was difficult because you got tired of all the late-night office paperwork you had to get done. But instead of planning out a proper timetable, you decide to let it go, explaining yourself that maybe you don’t need workouts and you are healthy enough.
When things don’t go according to plan, we often try to reason with ourselves that it is okay, we don’t need it or we will be fine without it. This reasoning often is the reason for us to give up on whatever we are doing.
Gaming taught me that just because something appears difficult, it isn’t impossible. Problems always come with solutions. You need to be patient and determined enough to set things straight. No matter how difficult a level was or how many new skills it needed, if I didn’t keep trying then failure was guaranteed, but if I kept trying then I would eventually clear the level.
Life is just like gaming, you have to quit being a perfectionist. It’s okay to make mistakes. Make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, make new mistakes and keep learning. Have a plan at every step of your embarkment, even if it means doing something over and over again. Spend your time and energy accordingly.
Take one step at a time. There is no need to rush. Stay committed to your dream and believe in yourself. It almost appears to be impossible until it’s done.
Because, 40 years from now, you would want to think of all those difficult moments of your life and smile at yourself thinking how you beat each one of them. Regrets are results of unfinished jobs and unfulfilled desires.
This came from when I used to give up when levels got hard and moved on to new games. My friends who finished would talk about how cool the new levels were, but I would never get to experience it if I didn’t persist of finish. So, I started the practice of finishing everything I started, and that has carried on to my life.
I am thankful that my younger self learned this from having fun and my older self can apply it in life! Let me know what are the lessons that you have learned through your time gaming.