Your 1st post of 2019... and we are doing something EXTREMELY important together! This is the undead slaying Paladin themed video game motivational success planning post you never knew you needed. Now with 100% more screenshots.
...it was awesome.
We brought in the New Year with caffeine induced chaos, creativity, and a lot of ridiculously spawned oversized monsters. For anyone who missed it... each hour we went to different places in the world (or town) to launch fireworks and have mini live events where we battle waves of monsters, and ultimately a boss monster before everyone got a shot at a Live Event Chest. It escalated hilariously.
It was my day off, and I was doing the thing I truly love. Hanging out with you being unpredictably entertaining as the game would let me. I mean... during MJ's live stream we declared that the greenscreen map is now the sovereign nation of Greenscreenia and everyone there was knighted to nobility or given a noble title. THAT is exactly the type of inside-joke creating moments I live for-- and want to be a part of. So this, has become the epicenter of my personal goals for 2019. (Wait-- did this actually just merge back into the main purpose of this post!? WHAT A TWIST)
When I was younger I made a lot of stupid "New Year's Resolutions" just because I felt I was supposed to. Everyone else was doing it. I would say things like "I should work out more" or "I should quit drinking so much caffine" and the like... But the goals that most people make tend to be ones that remove something from your life. Be it bad or not, it is taking something away from you. Goals like this do not exactly inspire you to get out of bed in the morning. "OH MAN! Woohoo It's Monday! I can't wait to get out of my bed and not drink as much coffee today!" It is easy to understand why most people forget about their New Year's Resolution and slip back into their old habits in no time.
I think there is a better way...
A lot of self help books feed off of people insecurities about who they are. "I'm not good enough", "I need to be like someone else", "I need to focus on becoming or changing all of the things that I am... well, frankly... not." So, let me toss an idea at you. What if we (you and I) just decided we were going to take a close look at ourselves-- find the things about us that already make us great. Then we focus on BECOMING A LOT MORE OF THAT!
One of my new friends is a WWE wrestler. It really seems like the very best WWE stars are just exaggerated versions of their real selves. It made perfect sense to me. I do not think I could pull off being someone I am not. But I could certainly be a lot more of who I already am.
...also vampires, liches, mummified ancient undead, etc.
If you are making a New Year's Resolution this year, consider giving yourself a person challenge to do even more of something you are already good, great, or growing at. Do you create art, music, write, or make videos? Make a challenge 30-day inktober-like challenge to push yourself to make even more of it. Do you love spending time with someone? Make bigger bolder plans to create even better memories together. Find something you are already great at-- and make your goal to push it to an entirely new level! Except for playing video games. I know this sounds weird from the guy who is making a game you are playing, but you are really going to take what you do amazing to the next level-- you will need to steal back time some of your free time from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, and your other distractions to do it. I was able to find an extra hour a day without giving anything up-- just scheduled my time on social media instead of looking at my phone non-stop.
If you made it this far... you better read this too O_O
As an undead slayer, it is satisfying to battle undead minions. But what really gets your blood pumping is hunting a bigger, more dangerous, more powerful undead BOSS MONSTER. Taking on a big goal requires planning, strategy, training, coordination... oh, also you actually have to do it.
My favorite quote from 2018 is "WHEN = NOW!". That is, when you ask yourself in your head when should I start working on something... or when should I write that book report... or when should I make that call.... The answer is NOW. Which has resulted in some embarrassing phone calls from my tub. There is something you might not know about me. I am REALLY lazy. I will do almost anything to get out of doing things. Like laundry. I spent more time working on how not to do my homework in school than the time it would have taken to actually do my homework. It is arguable that my entire game studio only exists as an elaborate scheme to get out of doing laundry. So this "When=Now" philosophy has had a weird impact on my behavior. Like when I suddenly threw out that halloween candy-- which I have seen in the pantry every day since 2008 saying, "Oh, I will throw that out tomorrow" Because it also turns out that "TOMORROW = NEVER."
I find it really hard to work on extremely important things... even when it is urgent. Sorta of like doing a book report. If there is a week left, why panic! XD 3 days left? Plenty of time. THE NIGHT BEFORE. Oh man... I better get started. Do you have the same problem? Until recently, I had been running my entire life this way.
Last week I spent a half dozen hours with my Martial Arts Grandmaster. We normally get together once a week... but this time, were intensely planning our lives & goals for 2019. So, how can you make goals and avoid doing the very procrastination trap we were just talking about? I would like to share with you exactly what we did.
If you have been enjoying this post... this is where it gets weird. Because there are two very split camps on whether you should stand on a soap box and announce your goals or not. On one hand, boldly declaring something tells everyone exactly what you are doing and helps hold you accountable. On the other hand, it can be pretty embarrassing if you are late or things need to change. Perhaps more important, telling certain people your goals can actually poison them. The goals... not the people. I am not a very secretive person by any stretch of the imagination... I will happily tell you anything (if I did not already XD) but I personally believe you should keep your most precious goals secret to yourself. At last until the moment where you are about to take the big step. If you dream big like I do... then you likely already know how most people react to your initial pitch of a big idea! Like when I told the AQWorlds team we were going to do wekely updates. They ALL called me crazy and said no, it could NEVER be done for an MMO. But I knew they were wrong... because the team told me the exact same thing when we made DragonFable and did the same. Most of our friends really want us to succeed at our goals... but their instinctive worry and concern for us and accidentally "protect us" right out of having the self confidence to go for it. And between us, it is 100% absolutely OK to fail. That is to try something and screw up. In fact, you HAVE to fail. Failing is the only way we grow. Which brings up another favorite quote: "The Master has failed more times than the novice has ever tried."
Yeah... I watched that Black Mirror movie too. It was pretty amazing. But no one is in control of our lives except for us. (Mostly).
One final thought before we stick a fork in this. After my goal setting, I reached out to a mentor/idol that I think very highly of to ask how he does his goal setting. He told me that calendar dates are arbitrary and that he does not do yearly goal setting like that. I very much respect him and was surprised by his answer. Thinking back, I never did goal setting before. Back in the day I was so "in the zone" that I always knew what I needed to be doing, what was next, and so on. But I am in a very different place now... my projects are bigger and more ambitious than ever before. I know that for me, I need to meticulously plan and break things down to figure out how we can accomplish them over the next 12 months-- even if things will (and oh they certainly will) change along the way. To be the best version of me, I need to charge forward doing what I do best.. but also, doing my best not to make the mistakes I made in the past. Whether you set goals, new years resolution, or just liked reading this because it was in some way interesting-- the only important thing is that you are doing what works for you.
Which brings me to another favorite quote....
"ULTIMATE GOAL... BETTER THAN YESTERDAY!"
Battle on!
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