Quests and Process

Humans are goal setting machines. We set make 5 year plans. We set New years Resolutions. We play video games filled with quest markers and goals and to do lists. But what about bigger goals?

We had some semblance of these goals when we were children. We wanted to be ballerinas and archaeologists, we wanted to be president of Mars or Wonder Woman. Where are these goals now? We want to lose ten pounds or get promotion with an extra week of vacation. Where are the grand ambitions of our six year old imaginations.  I suspect most of us still have those goals. We just don’t tell anyone, because they sound so ridiculous.

Good. proper goals are ridiculous. Reasonable goals are uninspiring. Realistic goals are designed to turn us into a small and boring people who think beige is a color that belongs on walls.

And whether we tell people or not, we will likely never reach our final goals. If we do, we have picked quests that are too small for our majesty. If we reach our goals, then they were quests for beige paint and a fifty cent increase on our hourly wage- unworthy of pursuit except as minor stepping stones.

The point is the not the goal of our great quest. The point is the process. The daily routine, the core gameplay loop, the point is the grind that we will engage in for the rest of our lives. That is the part that matters. If the core routine, the primary gameplay loop, of our daily lives is satisfying and brings results that move us towards our epic goal, then that is enough. This blog entry is part of that loop. I write, and therefore a routine that involves morning writing is part of my core gameplay loop. I seek to accomplish change by creating an Injection for the cultural zeitgeist (see yesterday’s blog entry), and see to injection that idea via a piece of mythic creation. Thus my core gameplay loop requires me to write. So I start my day by writing. Like going for a morning jog, this is exercise. This is part of my grind.

If you grind away at something long enough, you will find you have sharpened it into a blade that cuts effortlessly. Make sure the tool you created is one with which you like to work, and one whose work you are pleased to do. because once you have your cutting tool, you will use it without thinking. Practice being who you wish to be. Otherwise you will become whatever stray things you do practice.

This is rambling now, so I will stop here. I think I have ambled around an idea well enough to outline the shape. I leave the rest to you.