Life is a Video Game
Start at Level 0
What if you were able to rewind time and press the reset button to start over? Would you? If so, what would you do differently?
It's like back in the day when kids used to play "Pokémon" on their Gameboys. Palletown was the place they started in, and where they had to pick their first Pokémon. They had 3 choices: Charmander, Squirtle, or Bulbasaur. Doing so would veer their journey, and throughout this, they would make more decisions that steer their gameplay.
Leveling Up...With Real Risks
But unlike video games, redoing any component of your life has real world consequences. It also may not have the outcomes that you expect. Once you forge a new path, there are less and less resets.It's the real-life adage of choosing the devil you already know, or the angel you want to get to know. This could be divorcing and remarrying, starting a new career in a new industry, or moving to another state or country. The similarity between a video game and the real world is that you can reset components of your life. But the main difference is that there is no guarantee of success.
Be Strategic With The EXP
Every reset button in life comes with a roadmap. Everyone's roadmap is different since life is unpredictable. And to be honest, most people don't map out their lives, leading them to live life unpredictably with twists and turns.
Even though life is unpredictable, when you start game planning your life, you will have higher odds of success. This is also because most people aren't strategic at all. Once you develop stratagems for all of your decisions, you will have higher chances of success.
David vs. Goliath (Video Game Version)
Starting over is scary. Take for example if you decided to start your career over in a new industry. You will face new obstacles that you have yet to overcome. It can feel daunting and overwhelming. Chances are that the people you work or compete with have been doing this for much longer than you. Thus, you are starting at level 0.
In order to make yourself known among a sea of talented people, you must learn and implement knowledge at a steadily rapid pace, and you must be able to market yourself to stand out. This will help you move up the corporate or entrepreneurial value ladder.
End at Level 99
Using the previous example of career change, once you maxed out your experience points in the chosen career path, you must learn to forge new paths that create a stronger, more durable character. For example, if you initially chose to pick digital marketing as a new career path and it is now maxed out, you must decide what other skills to learn and max out on. If you did the research and strategically chose to skill up, and eventually max out on the new skill of 'programming', you would do so knowing that it will be skilled as a complement to your maxed out ones.
Surely, nobody is perfect, and sometimes you will fail. But be mindful of the present while understanding that the future unknowns could be catastrophic. Once you understand and are at-peace with the fatalistic potential of your decisions, and you learn to keep going, you will have better odds of success. The more you troubleshoot and acquire new skills, while strategically game planning for success, you will slowly max out your skills. Focus on one skill acquisition at a time before you max out on the next ones. Don't let shiny object syndrome make you quit your path.
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