Today, I’m gona go all philosophical on your ass, so if you aren’t into a higher level of thinking then this post is most likely not for you. Also, if you’ve never played a video game in your life (I’m talking ANY… from Mario to Halo) then some concepts might elude you.

So what the hell am I talking about? “Life is like a game? No, life is REAL!”…  you say. Well yes and no. Just like a game, your life’s story or “journey” has a beginning and an end. Or should we say that a game, just like life, has a beginning and an ending? Well it doesn’t matter, in this post I will interchange between the two since they are quite similar. My point is that if you treat life like a game in some aspects, you’ll be able to focus on the things that REALLY matter and get shit done.

Let’s dig in…

Whenever I look at, or read about events that happen around our society, it’s surprising to me how many people FEEL like their affected by it when it has absolutely nothing to do with them. Little shit happens here and there and suddenly a whole slew of people are all “offended!”. There are legitimate events that should cause you to stir up, but half of the time it’s all totally bullshit.

What this shows is the lack of focus that most people have towards their goals. Too many of you are focusing on “outside” events instead of focusing on shit that matters to YOU. Let’s take a fitness example… How many times are you looking around to see who is watching you workout in a gym? Or let’s say you totally fuck up and drop the 45 pounders because you could shoulder press no more… how many times are you looking around to see if anyone is judging you? Quite a lot I bet.

Now what if you were playing a game (a weight lifting game for the sake of an obvious example) and your character dropped the weights in the same manner and a few “fake” people in the game turned their heads towards you in disbelief. Would you care? NO. It’s a game right? It’s not real so who gives a shit… you would just focus on the task at hand and get it done, whatever it may be.

Isn’t that interesting? See in games you always have a bunch of tasks that you need to accomplish, and the completion of these tasks will result in accomplishing a higher goal… whether it be saving the princess or saving the world. The way that (good) games small chunk the process and make it enjoying is an art in itself.

So why can’t your life be like that? Instead of crying about bullshit, why not have a goal, then split it into a series of enjoyable tasks? The only difference is that the tasks in digital games are pre-laid out for you instead of you having applying yourself can coming up with your own list. But if you worked on it, would you come out a more successful and accomplished human being?

FUCKING RIGHT YOU WOULD!

Of course, life can’t be treated as a game ALL the time, or Grand Theft Auto players would run over prostitutes and old grannies in their stolen mafia cars for points. Appalling, yes… whatever. This is where your common sense comes into play and where you need to differentiate between the “digital” game and the game I call life, because life has consequences that are way more serious than Grand Theft Auto.

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See in a digital video game, if you fuck up… you can start over or continue from your save point. Life on the other hand is a very technologically obsolete game. It’s go no save check points, you can’t pause it and it’s got no cheat codes. Hell… even it’s reset button is questionable (the defibrillator doesn’t work all the time folks). So the game of life needs to be played a bit more carefully. Your “spirit” or “conscience” was given control of the body you see in the mirror before you, and just like a video game character you can pimp out this “real life” character or make it suffer… the only problem is that you are connected to it. This means you’ll feel the pain and you’ll feel the joy. Talk about an immersive experience!

It’s fascinating to me how some doucheface can sit at his computer for 6 hours a day playing World Of Warcraft and getting his “character” to level 60 and pimping it out with the latest gear and all that bullshit when in the game of ‘life’ his body has more fat deposits than a warpig. I mean, if his digital game character gets it’s face smashed in there is no real “pain” that will be felt. But in the game of life, if he falls down the stairs because of his awkward weight distribution… it will hurt like hell. So why is he still focusing on some digital bullshit instead of leveling himself up as a man? I duno… I still don’t have an answer for that one. Or maybe I do: “Get your ass off the chair and into a gym… fag!”

Now, not all WoW players fit this general stereotypical description but they have other problems that need to be dealt with.

So, whether you like it or not and whether you want to look at it from my point of view or not, life is like a game, albeit a very unforgiving game. A game where focusing on your small tasks is CRUCIAL. A game that will continue to unfold in front of you regardless of what you do… so my question is, are you gona sit there and indulge yourself in fake digital utopias or strap up and play for ‘real’? Because you only get one chance. Game on bitches!

- FitJerk