You won’t get far in life by scavenging for resources in nearby bushes like in Zelda or by pistol-whipping strangers while walking down the street like in Grand Theft Auto V, but you may find that life can be endlessly entertaining if you start to accept challenging missions and take action to complete them, just like in a video game.
Video games teach us much more than how to set goals. They learn to manage resources, take care of our health, solve puzzles, overcome adversity, be OK with failure and increase our fun factor by teaming up with other people. By thinking of your life as a video game, you can dramatically improve your quality of life.
Character selection
In immersive simulation or open-world games, it’s not uncommon for you to choose characters that match your preferred playstyle—from silent assassin to medic to guns-a-blazin’ renegade. Certain character types will have access to different abilities, tools, or weapons that will end up affecting how you play the game.
Your life is no different. Of course, you are born with a genetically determined face shape and skin type, and the amount of adaptation you can make to your physical body may be limited, but other choices, such as the values you believe are most important, can significantly affect your life.
For example, if you decide that solving environmental problems is more important than playing sports, you might choose to become a scientist instead of an athlete. The life of a scientist will involve more time in laboratories and studies, while the life of an athlete will involve more time in the gym and training. In this way, by choosing some values over others, you set the tone for your life’s playstyle.
Upgrade your skills
There are many ways to make boring simulation games fun; But in mission-driven games, play is the most fun when you can level up and then tackle the next challenge, mission, or boss fight. Skill development in video games is often depicted in the form of a skill tree. You start at the trunk by building basic skills (like walking fast while crouching) until you earn enough resources and experience to learn more advanced skills (like triple-kill combos).
What kind of skills you choose to learn also depends on your character type – are you the type of player who prefers to hack systems silently, or the type who likes to overwhelm enemies through brute force combat?
Your life is no different. If you want to become a plumber, you must learn how to install pipes. If you want to be the next President of the United States, you might want to learn the skills required to be a reality TV host (You’re fired!). Whatever you want to be, think of your life this way – you have a skill tree to develop, so start at the bottom and work your way up. Otherwise, you will never progress in your career, relationship or life in general.
Use resources wisely
In video games, resources—whether in-world currency or XP—are needed to advance your skills, buy new tools, or increase your weapon cache.
Resources help you prepare for the next more difficult mission, and at least some accumulation of resources is an absolute requirement to beat any game. Resources are also scarce, so you have to make critical trade-offs between buying a flashy character mod, or a map that reveals the location of side quests that reward you with more resources.
Your life is no different. If you want to raise a family, you need a home, a vehicle, and definitely some diapers. If you want to live the lifestyle of a philandering playboy (or playgirl) who parties on Wednesdays, that’s cool too, but you’re going to need some resources.
Find out how to earn as many resources as possible, as quickly as possible, in a way that doesn’t make you want to stop playing the game of life altogether, and don’t waste your hard-earned resources on too many superficial items that hinder you in getting more important things.
Maintain your health
Even if you’re playing a game where your “character” is a machine, like a spaceship or a sports car, you have a limited amount of health. By saving your valuable bars, you will be prepared for the next challenge. Furthermore, most players know that one of the best ways to increase your chances of success on difficult levels or against difficult bosses is to increase your overall health, as well as your ability to recover from damage.
Your life is no different. Life will throw all kinds of stressful situations your way. In fact, it is guaranteed. So the better prepared you are to deal with emotional and physical hardships, whether it’s the death of a loved one or a personal illness, your mental and emotional health will be the single biggest factor in how well you get through it. From physical exercise to meditation, if you’re not already building your real-life health bar, you might want to start! Challenges are coming.
Conquer missions
There are many amazing single-player RPGs, each with its own story, missions, and quests that define how the game is played. The whole purpose of most of these games is to “beat” the game because there is a huge amount of achievement that comes with conquering an immersive title.
During these games, there are often main quests that help tell the main story, as well as side quests and other opportunities to help other characters, often resulting in some of the most fun gameplay and/or rewards.
Life is no different. When you’re chasing big, hairy, audacious goals—life missions—life simply has more meaning. You are constantly working towards something, you have a purpose, and life is enjoyable.
Just like in games, there will be unexpected side quests – your best friend is getting married in Thailand and you have to organize a bachelorette party abroad, otherwise your wife can’t have children, so you adopt one from Uganda.
When you have a mission and accept many side quests, you will never be bored or wonder what you should do with your life.
Start treating your life like a video game
Players are smart. They can strategize, think on their feet and collaborate with others. They understand how to read the environment to unlock secrets and achieve new gaming experiences.
So try to think of your life as a video game. If you fail, restart or change the game. Just don’t stop playing.
