Leveling Up in Video Games and How it can be Applied in Real Life

Before I became anything else, I first became a gamer. My parents bought the PlayStation One for me and my two older brothers, and we were hooked with video games ever since. I was always fascinated by video games. They were fun and entertaining. When I was a kid, I could play them all day on the weekend breaks from school. I still play video games to this day, but not as much as I did when I was a kid.

There was one concept in video games that I always thought about. It's called "Level Up." It's a situation where your character or player reaches a higher level where they get stronger, faster, smarter, overall better than their previous level. I always reach a feeling of euphoria, even just for a few seconds whenever I see the level up icon on my character when I play those games. It made me feel like I accomplished something wonderful.

I then thought that hey, this can be applied in real life too! Think about it. There are levels in almost everything in life. In school, there is Pre-school > Elementary > High School > College/University > graduate school/law school/medicine school. In a job, there's usually an Entry-level > Supervisor > Manager > CEO/Owner. In sports, there's a Beginner > Amateur > Professional > World Class. There are levels everywhere.

How can we apply this to real life though? These are just games though? Here are a few tips:

1) Grind and Put In The Work

In RPGs, you have to kill enemies, monsters or bosses to raise your level usually. You have to kill a lot of these just to raise your level. It's the same thing in real life but not with monsters or enemies though. You have to work hard and make an effort to raise your level.

For example, if you work in a sales job, then you have to make a certain number of calls. There are quotas, and the best salesman goes above and beyond those quotas to become the best. If the average salesman does 30 sales calls a day, then the top salesman does at least 80 sales calls a day. Work, work, then work some more.

2) Find out Ways to Earn Experience

In games, there are other ways to raise your level rather than kill monsters. These are usually quests and sidequests, basically a set of tasks you do in exchange for a reward. In real life, there are quests and sidequests you have to take to get better.

Let's take sidequests, for example, these are optional quests but they will greatly help in making you better suited to take on the main quests. You can do optional things to better yourself like taking a class, going to a seminar, reading a book, getting a mentor, learning a new language, etc. These are optional so you don't have to do them, but if you do, you will get your extra reward and raise your level faster.

3) Get Great Teammates

There are games where you have to play with other people. These games are where you get a team to work towards a common goal or to defeat the opposing team. There is a saying that "you are only as strong as your weakest link" so if you have bad teammates, then no matter how good you are, you will have bad results.

Jim Rohn said that "You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with." This applies to the team around you. If you spend time with a group of people, then you will become like the people in that group.

So I suggest you get the best team that you can. The higher level they are, the better. Spend time with the Valedictorian, the top student, the best-selling writer, the top artist, the CEO, the owner, the top employee, the best performer of the month, the millionaire, the rich businessman, top salesman, and so on. If you want to be a top player, then hang out and play with the current top players.

CAVEAT: In games, there is a Max Level, in real life there is no such thing.

Take note of this. Sometimes there are max levels in the game. It can be level 99 or 100 or 200 or whatever. In real life, there is no such thing as a max level. There is always room for improvement. This is the Japanese concept called Kaizen. It says that you should strive for constant and never-ending improvement. If you think you are the best and you have mastered everything there is to master, that's not the case. There are always new things you can learn to raise your level. Even the master sometimes acts like a beginner to learn something new.

Now you know how to raise your level in this game called Life.

That Awkward Stage of Learning Something New

Remember the time you learned how to walk when you were a baby? Of course not because you were a baby back then! Kidding aside, the reason why I want you to remember that is that when we were babies and were learning how to walk, we stumbled and failed many times before we actually learned how to properly walk. Sure our parents tried to teach us, but we learned it ourselves by trying and trying until we succeeded. 

That is the awkward stage of learning. Whenever we try to learn something new, there's an immensely hard part at the beginning where we are awkward and we make a lot of mistakes and fail before we get it right the first time. Everyone goes through this. Everyone starts as being a beginner at anything in life.

Now, remember the time when you tried to learn how to ride the bicycle. Almost everyone can relate to this as we fell and scratched our knees and legs whenever we made a mistake at the start of learning. Eventually, though, we learned how to ride the bike. Some people have even mastered riding the bike with no hands on the grip!

This also applies to everyday things like learning how to drive a car, cook, clean the house, read, write, speak, etc.

Also, we can apply this to other complicated and advanced matters in life like learning how to go on a date. I remember my first date with a girl. I was so nervous and shy, that my date thought of me as a weirdo. Now, I've gone on many dates and the women I went out with usually enjoy the date and my company as much as I enjoy them also.

Remember this as you apply this awkward learning to stage to other advanced matters as well like learning how to travel, public speaking, make a presentation, doing a sales talk, teaching people, learning how to start a business, trying a new job, learning a second language, meeting new friends, etc.

Allow yourself to make mistakes and fail at the start, learn from your mistakes and failures because that is how we learn new things. Everyone makes mistakes. Every master starts as a beginner. 

Why "Never Give Up" doesn't apply to Everybody

We've all heard of cliche phrases. There's that Nike phrase "Just Do It," there's also that Bob Marley song "Don't Worry, Be Happy," and the two most overused words for people aspiring to be successful and that is "Work Hard." Although there's one ubiquitous phrase that became my favorite the moment I've heard of it, and that phrase is "Never Give Up." 

Most people like this phrase. It shows perseverance against all odds, inhuman resilience. It shows a person willing to go through hundreds or even thousands of failures and rejections just to taste their big success. 

There are countless stories on the internet like these. From ultra famous names to regular everyday people. From Steve Jobs to Sylvester Stallone to Colonel Sanders of KFC. They went through a number of failures or rejections to get where they are today.

Before you get inspired to persist at whatever that you are doing or working on right now, there is one big caveat that many people don't realize about this: This is not applicable to everybody.

What if your current job is not something that you like or actually hate? What if you don't even give a damn on the current project you're working on? What if somebody else told you to start that hobby that you're not even the least bit interested in? What if the person you're dating is not the right one for you?

These are just some of the exceptions to this famous phrase. There are some things in life that if you give up on, then your life will actually become better. After you give up on certain things, you might try a new thing and little that you know that this new thing will be much better for you than that thing you gave up on.

Don't get me wrong, you shouldn't give up on something that you truly care about, but if this something does not bring you joy or happiness anymore, then, by all means, give up on it and make room for something far better.

It's REDIRECTION, not rejection.

Everybody has been rejected in their lives, and I mean everybody. I laugh at it now, but I used to have a friend who said to me: "Bro, I have NEVER been rejected by a girl, not even once!" That guy was about 3 or 4 years younger than me, and we were both teenagers then. It made me think, is that guy that handsome? Or is he just bragging about something that isn't true? It doesn't matter because I'm pretty sure he was lying.

Looking at it now, it made me look back at the girls who rejected me...wow there's a lot of them. Although now I realize that thank God they rejected me! It hurts at first, but if you think about it, those girls are doing you a favor. Girls rejecting you simply means that they aren't right for you. You might be thinking "but I really like that girl!" but think about it, would you honestly date someone that doesn't like you? Every rejection that I get in my love life, gets me closer to the girl that I will end up with, whoever she is (God I hope I meet her soon).

This not only applies to your dating life, but also in your career as well. I remember in my last job I was terminated after only one month. At first, it was devastating, but later on, I realized that it was a blessing in disguise. I worked at the night shift, and I'm one of those people that is not allowed to work the night shift because of health issues.

In the book, The Success Principles by Jack Canfield he had a formula for rejection: "SWSWSWSW" which means "Some Will Some Won't So What? Someone's Waiting." This means that no matter how many rejections you receive, someone out there is willing to say yes to you, but you've got to go through the many nos to get your yes.

Every rejection is a redirection to something better.

Whatever it is, do it NOW!

Has something like this ever happened to you: you're at school and it's recitation time, the teacher asked a question, everybody's wondering what the answer is, but you know. So you want to raise your hand but didn't. Maybe because you weren't sure if it was the right answer that you're thinking. Maybe because you're afraid that your classmates will think that you're Mr. or Mrs. smarty pants. Whatever reason you had for not raising your hand, you hesitated. A few seconds later, your classmate Michelle raised her hand and gave the right answer. Your teacher praised her and gave her a high grade for recitation. You probably hated Michelle for a few seconds or even a few minutes because she stole your answer, your high grade, and your praise.

I'm pretty sure something like this has happened to everyone, especially the shy ones. Unless you were a confident kid, this would happen to you.

In my own life, I regretted a lot of things in my school life. Now that I'm a working professional, whenever I look back, I can't help but think of all the things I would've done differently if I knew then what I know now. One thing I know now is to avoid procrastination. This is one of the biggest problems of people today. They put off for tomorrow what can be done today. I myself is guilty of this even to this day.

One example of this is when I took summer basketball lessons at elementary school. I think I was in 5th grade. I finished the lessons thinking that I would be a better player, but I didn't practice or play at all after that. I kept playing video games rather than basketball, and I put off playing telling that I will play tomorrow. Tomorrow then became the day after tomorrow, then turned to a few days, then next week, until I forgot to even play at all. I regret this so much because up to now I STILL can't say that I am good at playing basketball. I suck! I know how to play compared to when I started, but all that time spent I could've developed my skills were wasted. If I only did give time to practice and play basketball, I could've been good enough to play at local tournaments.

I also remember a story I read from the book Chicken Soup for the Soul. It's titled "Why Wait?...Just Do It!" by Glenn Mcintyre. The story here is about a person who wanted to ride a motorcycle but didn't know where to start. He just bought a motorcycle and started riding. At an early age of 17, he started to ride and fell in love with it. He rode until he ran out of roads years later. At the age of 23, he had a road accident and became a paraplegic. He was thankful that he rode at an early age because he wouldn't have experienced those wonderful things on the road if he hadn't started riding at that early age.

Whatever you want to do, whether it be to get a different career, try a new hobby, start a business, travel to another continent, do it NOW! The sooner, the better. Stop putting off for tomorrow what you can do now because there's no guarantee that there will be a tomorrow at all.

The main thing I learned from How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Last week, I and my older brother decided to watch How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World for a sort of like a post 26th birthday celebration for me. I was really excited because How to Train Your Dragon is one of my favorite animated movie series, and I also think dragons are cool (who doesn't think that those flying, fire-breathing mythical creatures are awesome?!). Besides the entertaining part of the story, there was one life lesson I learned in the movie and I want to share it.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead for those who haven't watched the movie, I suggest you watch it first or make sure that you're ok with me spoiling you.

So the story in this movie continues from the second one, where the people from Berk are living happily with the dragons, and at the same time catching the dragon killers. Eventually, Berk gets overpopulated especially since they brought home so many dragons over the years, making them an easy target for enemies, so they were forced to migrate to another location. Hiccup remembered a legend that his father told him about the hidden world, where the dragons can live amongst themselves. Many things happened and eventually, the people of Berk were happy with their new location, but they had to let go of all the dragons so that they can be safe in the hidden world.

You might be asking: Is there actually a lesson in this movie for real life? Yes, there is! If you just use a little bit of thinking, you will notice the lesson. It's that everything in this life has an end, you eventually have to let go. Hiccup and the people from Berk loved their dragons. From the ending of the first movie, all the way to this movie, they were with their dragons and enjoyed every second of it. This is until the part where they realized that the dragons are in danger, and there is a world where the dragons can be safe, but they will have to let go of them. This can be applied in real life too. No matter how much you are enjoying your life or whatever is happening in your life, there will be some big changes that will happen, let go of the past and let go of whatever is holding you from enjoying the present and focusing on the future. Let go of your glory days in high school, it's over. Let go of that job you loved/hated, you will get a new one. Let go of that previous relationship, he/she is not part of your life anymore (unless you stayed friends that is). Let go of that grudge you had with someone you didn't get along with or fought with, no matter the reason for your grudge, it's not important anymore. 

The sooner you can let go of the things in life that are no longer serving you, the better your life will be. 

The Deadly Feeling of Jealousy and How to Overcome It

Ah, jealousy. One of the ugliest emotions that a human being can ever experience. Ever since ancient times, this emotion has caused relationship strains, broken friendships, unhappiness, depression, hate, anger, and any other negative thing in human history. It can even cause wars between countries. All of us has experienced this in our lives. Remember when you were in school and your classmate got higher grades than you and she wasn’t even studying that hard? Or remember the time when you were a teenager and you started liking girls/boys, that your friend keeps getting attention from them while you’re wondering if you’re attractive or not? Or even when you started working and your colleague got that promotion way ahead of you, while you worked your ass off just to watch that asshole get it first? Yes, every single one of us knows this feeling too well. I’ve experienced it way too many times in my life so far. I did learn some ways to cope with it though, here they are and I hope they can help you to cope with your own syndrome of envy:

1)    Realize that everyone is different from you

-       Now just because that guy has a better car than you, doesn’t mean that same car will be right for you. Just because that girl has a hotter boyfriend than you, doesn’t mean that that same boyfriend will make you happy. Everyone has different advantages and disadvantages; everyone has different cards that life has dealt them with. You need to realize that just because that person has that thing in his/her life, that same thing won’t be right for your life.

2)    Be grateful for what you already have

-       My mom always said to me “son, when you want to be truly happy, you have to count your blessings,” and she was spot on. You can’t be happy if you keep looking at what others have that you don’t have. You’re always looking at what’s lacking in your life instead of what you already have. It’s impossible for someone to have absolutely nothing in their life; everyone has something. Even that beggar that you see in the street, he has his life. When you start being grateful for what you already have, only then you will realize that there’s nothing lacking and that you’re a blessed and lucky person.

(Caveat: if you want to add or improve something in your life, then go ahead. However, don’t do this if you’re coming from a place of scarcity, be grateful first then add something to your life or improve it, you will have a much easier time.)

3)    Be happy for the people around you

-       This is probably the hardest step. I know you’re thinking: “why the hell should I be happy for that bastard?” It’s because eventually, you’ll be as happy, or even happier than that person. I know it’s hard to believe that right now, you may be thinking that it’s pure bullshit, but it’s true. Things eventually do get better as time goes by. That problem you had yesterday, you will be able to solve it tomorrow. The worries you have about your job or your love life or your family, it probably won’t happen.

Also, that guy you hate or that girl that you think is snobby, you don’t know their story. You don’t know what’s happening in their lives, whether good or bad. They may be going through some hard stuff right now and are hiding it from everyone. You probably remember that time in your life, everyone remembers that dark time in their lives when they are worried about the worst case scenarios that may happen.

So the next time you see a person like that, be kind to them and give them your smile. I remember a story about a guy who killed himself. He wrote in his suicide note: “If on my way to the bridge where I’m going to jump, at least one person smiles at me, I won’t kill myself.” Guess what happened? Your smile may be able to save a person’s life.

Everyone feels jealous of someone else. I, you or people you know have gotten this feeling too. You don’t have to let this one silly negative emotion ruin your life.