Thinking About Games Differently
Not everything can be (or should be) a game.
Howdy 🤠
This week we’re talking about games, personal preferences, and doing hard things. I hope the thoughts/prompts below help spark some new ideas.
And as always, thanks for reading!
Kevin
Thinking About Games Differently
Life games reflect life aims. And the games men choose to play indicate not only their type, but also their level of inner development.
Robert S. de Ropp
Every activity we do can be classified as a game, depending on how we feel about it.
To decide if something is a game, we can ask ourselves a question: Would I skip this activity to get to the results? If the answer is yes, then it’s not a game. If the answer is no, then we can consider that a game.
If we asked a hiker if they wanted a helicopter ride to the top of a mountain, they would decline because, to them, hiking isn’t about reaching the top of the mountain. The journey and challenge of reaching the summit provide satisfaction and enjoyment, not the view at the top (although that’s great too).
Someone else would gladly accept the ride to the top, take their pictures, and head back down to get on with the rest of their life. Each of us plays different games in our lives, and the games we choose to play and learn to enjoy shape who we are.
Recognizing what we enjoy for its own sake and what we’d rather avoid seems intuitive, but often the answers aren’t as obvious as we think. Certain things we thought we loved, we realize we were doing only for the reward that comes afterward, and other things we thought we enjoyed were just a means to an end.
Regardless of what games we choose to play, it’s important to understand why we do things we do to make it easier to do the things we should be doing.
We all have things in our lives that we’re chasing, but we hate the process of getting there. While these daily efforts might feel like a game to someone else, they are the last things we want to be doing. If we could, we’d skip right to the end and enjoy the results without suffering through the process.
As nice as it would be, we can’t turn everything into a game. It would be a lot easier if we could take something that we hate and learn to love it so we can easily reap the rewards that come from it, but the reality is everyone’s brain is wired differently. Some people love eating; some people hate it. Some people can’t stop reading; others would rather walk on hot coals.
This doesn’t mean we can’t learn to enjoy certain things more over time, but recognizing that some things that feel impossible to us feel easy to others can help us realize that certain goals or objectives were chasing might require extra motivation, discipline, or planning.
Instead of kicking ourselves for not acting like someone else, we should be adjusting our behavior to match our reality.
Prompts
What games do you enjoy playing in your life?
What feels difficult to you but easy to lots of other people?
Which activities should you expect to use extra motivation, discipline, or planning to push through to your objective?
Deep Dive
If A Helicopter Drops You on the Top of a Mountain, Did you Climb It? - Michael Levy
An interesting read about the philosophy and integrity of “games”.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin