Our lives are almost exactly like video games.
When you start, you're just strolling around, trying to figure out the rules of the game. You try out a few things and a notification tells you if a particular action increased your score or depleted your health. Once you've figured out the do's and don't's, your pace quickens and you aim to complete the level. And what is the reward for completing it? The next level of course, with increased difficulty and new types of obstacles. You're not really sure what the end goal looks like, or what you're gaining from the overall experience. You have a rollercoaster of emotions ranging from the frustration of getting stuck on a particularly tricky obstacle to the happiness of clearing off one more level. The whole game is set up to test you more and more, even as your health gives out little by little till GAME OVER flashes on your screen. Sounds uneasily familiar, right?
As kids, the people around us serve as the notification of right and wrong. So once we figure out what gets us the carrot, and what gives us the stick, we keep trying to increase our score, or should I say respect, as we go along. All this while, the volume of that 'notification' keeps on increasing, and sometimes becomes unbearable. We pass through school, college, jobs and other degrees, marriage, kids... all the while further complicating our lives. Even after so much of social evolution, our lives are designed in such a manner that they keep becoming more and more difficult and demanding.
Of course, there is one major point of difference - there are no do-overs in life. There's no going back to the same point and fixing your mistakes or choosing a different path to change the course of the game.
So finally, my question is - what would you change about your life if you had a do-over?
When you start, you're just strolling around, trying to figure out the rules of the game. You try out a few things and a notification tells you if a particular action increased your score or depleted your health. Once you've figured out the do's and don't's, your pace quickens and you aim to complete the level. And what is the reward for completing it? The next level of course, with increased difficulty and new types of obstacles. You're not really sure what the end goal looks like, or what you're gaining from the overall experience. You have a rollercoaster of emotions ranging from the frustration of getting stuck on a particularly tricky obstacle to the happiness of clearing off one more level. The whole game is set up to test you more and more, even as your health gives out little by little till GAME OVER flashes on your screen. Sounds uneasily familiar, right?
As kids, the people around us serve as the notification of right and wrong. So once we figure out what gets us the carrot, and what gives us the stick, we keep trying to increase our score, or should I say respect, as we go along. All this while, the volume of that 'notification' keeps on increasing, and sometimes becomes unbearable. We pass through school, college, jobs and other degrees, marriage, kids... all the while further complicating our lives. Even after so much of social evolution, our lives are designed in such a manner that they keep becoming more and more difficult and demanding.
Of course, there is one major point of difference - there are no do-overs in life. There's no going back to the same point and fixing your mistakes or choosing a different path to change the course of the game.
So finally, my question is - what would you change about your life if you had a do-over?
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