If you know me, one thing you’ve probably heard me say before is, “I like losing more than I do winning.” The reason behind this is pretty simple, I feel like whenever I find success in anything I bask in my mega geniusness and get complacent, while when I fail, I (at least try to) assess everything critically and learn from it.
I first coined the aforementioned phrase when I really got into playing fighting games seriously. Eventually I reached a point where I was better than most of the players who would play online casually and I could beat them on autopilot; the fun sets were the ones against strong players who would destroy me by breaking down my habits and force me to get better. In general, I live my everyday life this same way. For a lazy person like me, it’s basically impossible to find the motivation to improve in things I’m already decent enough in- positive reinforcement does not really work on me. The last post was basically all about that. But in games, and fighting games in particular, losses and wins are really clear cut. Although many do make excuses (and look rather foolish doing so), it’s hard to escape the all caps “YOU LOSE” and taunting win quote from the opposing character that dawns on you after a loss.
I first coined the aforementioned phrase when I really got into playing fighting games seriously. Eventually I reached a point where I was better than most of the players who would play online casually and I could beat them on autopilot; the fun sets were the ones against strong players who would destroy me by breaking down my habits and force me to get better. In general, I live my everyday life this same way. For a lazy person like me, it’s basically impossible to find the motivation to improve in things I’m already decent enough in- positive reinforcement does not really work on me. The last post was basically all about that. But in games, and fighting games in particular, losses and wins are really clear cut. Although many do make excuses (and look rather foolish doing so), it’s hard to escape the all caps “YOU LOSE” and taunting win quote from the opposing character that dawns on you after a loss.
 |
| I was doing just that until you came long... |
What’s been bothering me recently is that I’ve realized that losses are not as clear cut in the real world. Most of the time, the various things you do day to day will not bring about an absolutely terrible result, or at least not immediately so. From there, it becomes easy to start autopiloting everything as long as things are going well day to day. This only really dawned on me recently when I caught up with some of my old high school friends and realized that fucking around all throughout college really made me fall behind my peers.
Looking forward, I guess the easiest way to get back on track ties back to what I wrote about last time, by setting small goals to keep me heading forward. Not everything has to be a competition anyway, everyone works at their own pace. But I just have to remember not to fall into the trap of equating happiness and comfort in my day to day life as a win. Maybe the best way is just to think of everything as loss anyway.
via ytCropper
No comments:
Post a Comment