Game of life

Making the assumption that you've played one or several games during your life so far, you've probably found some joy in them. You may even excel in some of them. You may even make a living out of playing a game.

When it comes to games and their relationship with life, here's a fun idea: what if, instead of stressing about meaningless everyday things that don't contribute to your long-term happiness, you thought of life itself as a game, where winning was the goal, but losing isn't the end of the world? If you believe in the simulation theory, this hypothesis is actually quite solid to begin with: you think of yourself as an avatar in a simulation game (for example Call of Duty or The Sims). And if you don't, well, it's still a fun idea.

The pros of thinking of your life as a game:

You try out new ideas, no matter how far-fetched, unlikely to succeed, or ridiculous they sound like. Because what's the worst that could happen? You die and go back to the latest continue spot?
You stop worrying about the little things and instead start to focus your attention in achieving the big picture, the final boss, all the levels. You will no longer beat yourself up for taking a few hits or missing a couple of coins - you just need to pass all the levels and win the game.
You lose most of your fear, especially the irrational ones.

This sounds so handy that it's worth giving a shot. I realize it's hard to start thinking like this constantly, but reminding yourself with a note, placed so that you see it regularly, could help do the trick.

Who knows what you might make of your life if you stopped worrying and treated it as a game!

P.S. I realize there's a game called Game of Life, and I realize it looks nothing like the picture above that presents another game, Rubik's cube. Neither of these really have much to do with what I'm talking about in this article.