My friend, who isn’t a gamer, recently asked me how can anyone keep playing games even after having to play some levels again and again in order to reach the next. Doesn’t it get boring or repetitive or disheartening? While video games aren’t that deep, they do raise some questions from time to time.
It is normal for people to fail at things they attempt for the first time. What is important is that you have an open mindset about it so that you can learn from your failures and apply your knowledge to find out new ways to overcome the obstacles. Never look at an obstacle and see it as an impediment.
Instead, look at it as an education – if you lose, you will learn more about why you lost, which will then help you make a better effort next time to get the obstacle removed. And in doing so, the obstacle becomes an educative tool that shows you how to get over it. In this case, you learn about the tactics that don’t work so you can now eliminate those and think about other ways. In doing so, you are training your mind to keep looking for solutions and not give up. This helps our stance during difficult times in our lives as well.
For example, suppose that you have been assigned to complete a new task at your job. Initially, you might find it very difficult to complete, and may try to get it reassigned. You will be unsuccessful in completing the job in your first few attempts. This is sure to dishearten you. Now, you can either give up or push through it. You know that telling your boss that you can’t do something isn’t exactly what you want so, pushing through is the only option.
Now, even though your first few attempts weren’t successful, those attempts will give you a good idea of what it would take to complete the task. And then you will slowly start to see how the task can be solved. Your constant attempt at completing the task, which you considered as impossible, has now shown you the way to complete it.
This is the essential difference between those who are successful and those who give up after the first attempt. Studies have proved that video games help boost cognitive skills. Problem-solving is one of the major things that people learn to adapt to their personality. Because there are perks of going to the next level, most gamers won’t give up, no matter how long it takes to crack a challenge. Our little gamer egos take completion of games pretty seriously, to tell you the truth.
Success is a mindset and a key to this is a broad-minded approach to failures. Remember, failures are defeats when you don’t learn – in video games and in life.