Your life is not much different to a video game.
You get to wander around the world, interact with other players and have to transform who you are in order to get to every next level.
As Leonardo DiCaprio once said,
“Every next level of your life will demand a different you.”
Although what a lot of people don’t realize is that video games are designed to make you addicted. They are laden with signals of progress and random dopamine spikes so that you’ll be driven to finish the game very quickly.
And what if life could be the same?
What if you could become addicted to progress and rapidly achieve bigger and bigger goals?
This is article will explore this premise.
Here we go.
You Should Be Playing Your Own Game
“Most people are imitators, not innovators. It takes courage to change the game, rather then merely play it.” -Benjamin P. Hardy
Most people are going through life just playing the cards they’ve been dealt; they are following other people’s paths without making their own.
And not for a second have they stopped to considered that they don’t have to play the game everyone else is playing — even it is making them miserable and unhappy.
As Anthony Moore once wrote,
“The world caters to individuals who wish to stay in the safety of the majority. Even if this lifestyle is unfulfilling and subpar, it’s comfortable and secure.”
In fact, if we really got into it, we could say that a lot of people aren’t actually playing a game; they’re in spectator mode watching everyone play theirs.
And this is not a fun way to live, but when you don’t take the responsibility of being the sole developer of your life experience, it’s what happens.
You end following other people’s lives, ideas, and rules to find yourself in not a very good place.
However, when you play your own game, you get to design your own rules.
You get to decide what you’ll achieve, how fast you’ll go and where you’ll end up; there are no limits.
So, are you going to live other people’s game or will you create your own?
Embrace Failure and Get Really Curious About What Does and Doesn’t Work
“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all.” -Thomas J. Watson
The fastest way to move forward and rapidly progress in life is through failure — you learn what works by finding out what doesn’t work.
You then need to throw away anything that doesn’t work and keep only that which does. This is how you tweak and correct your approach. This is how you achieve more and more success.
Hence why Seth Godin once said,
“If I fail more than you, I win.”
When you take the shot every time, eventually a few will go in.
And at the core of success is being willing to attempt things that might not work. If you’re certain of an outcome, chances are you probably won’t achieve anything significant.
But if you can have the courage to stare down the void of the unknown and embrace the possibility of failure, while you might fail big, there’s also a possibility you might win big.
And when you’re more focused on the rewards rather than the risks, then you’ll achieve extraordinary results.
“If you’re not failing you are either very lucky, very good, or not pushing the boundaries enough.” -Dr. Bradley Staats
Measure the “The Gain” Not “The Gap”
“If you constantly measure yourself against your ideals, you’ll be living in what Dan Sullivan calls, “The Gap,” which will create feelings of unhappiness and dissatisfaction. When you measure yourself against where you were, you live in what Dan Sullivan calls, “The Gain,” which helps you realize and appreciate how far you’ve come.” -Benjamin P. Hardy
Many people are racing through levels without even knowing it. They are so focused on getting to the next they haven’t even stop to recognize where they are.
And while overachievers will naturally think this is a good thing, it’ll actually end up holding you back. It will lead you to be perpetually dissatisfied with where you are,and in turn, cause you to set lesser goals.
You will end up setting lower and lower targets just to finally feel the feeling of your goals fulfilled. Not good!
Alternatively, when you measure your current-self against your former-self — where you were when you set your goals Vs. where you are now, you’ll realize how far you’ve come and have the confidence to set bigger and bigger goals.
You’ll be excited about the future while also living presently.
So, don’t rob yourself of the joy that comes from ‘leveling up’ — take the time look back and see how far you’ve come, just don’t get stuck in the past. What got you here won’t get you there.
In Conclusion
Your life is not much different to a video game.
If you’re not playing your own game, you will not progress very quickly. Rather, you will only go a fast as everyone’s else wants to go, and that speed is no longer viable.
As Shane Snow wrote in his book, Smartcuts, “Traditional paths are not just slow; they’re no longer viable if we want to compete and innovate.”
Failure is not the enemy of success, but how you achieve more and more success. Missed shots are not losses, but lessons learned. Each lesson is how you move forward.
Finally, you should always measure your ideals against the “the gain” not “the gap.” You can’t have the confidence to pursue bigger and bigger goals if you’re not seeing tangible progress.