Once upon a time I lived for video games. I bought them and consumed them. I spent most of my time playing and trying to finish these games. Back in 2006 I stopped playing entirely for several months. The day I stopped was after a particularly exciting Madden Football game. I won the game and it meant the end of the season–the end of the franchise. In other words, I wasn’t going to be able to play with those characters again. I needed to start over or simply wait till the next game came out. I started to wonder why I was playing at all? I mean I enjoyed the game but it didn’t matter at all. I wasn’t even playing against other people. It may have bee the first time I reflected on my gaming habits in any serious way.
That reflection began with the question, “So what?” in other words, now that I’ve finished the game, so what? I didn’t have a good answer. I wasn’t gaining anything from the game but a major distraction. The next step was to make a list of pros and cons having to do with the game itself. I listed all the reasons I played and all the things I missed out on because of playing so many bloody games. The list helped me to strike a comfortable balance between games and the rest of my life. I don’t game nearly as much anymore, but I recognize the ‘so what’ there is ‘so it makes me happy’.
This model of reflecting on various aspects of your life and searching for meaning in your actions is useful. Most of the time we do things we are doing them out of habit. Well, not all habits are good and even fewer are good for us. You need to close the loop on your actions by reflecting and deciding if what and how you’re doing this is best for you. We all can learn a lot from self examination.