I imagine that most of you reading this are really well acquainted with “the fear of failure”.
If so, you probably view yourself as some kind of perfectionist. You won’t apply to a job because your demo or resume isn’t exactly perfect, you won’t go to a meetup or a conference because your business cards aren’t ready.
Essentially, you don’t want anyone to see or critique anything that you do unless it’s absolutely perfect.
So, you’re deathly afraid of critique and failure.
Supposedly.
You Love It
I know exactly three things about the game Cuphead.
- It’s a shooter with a throwback art style
- It’s really hard
- Everyone loved it
The question to ask yourself is this – why did everyone love it?
You may say the art style. You may say its “gameplay mechanics”. You may say it’s how the game feels, it’s music – anything or a combination of it all.
And you wouldn’t be wrong about any of that.
But I’d argue that you’ve overlooked the biggest reason why people loved Cuphead.
You love it because, just like many other games, it’s about losing. You fail, you learn, you try again, you eventually (hopefully) succeed.
Realistically, numerous games can be used for this analogy and it still holds up.
Because lots of video games are about losing.
In fact, it may surprise you (it surprised me) that a litany of beloved video games are all about building resiliency and overcoming the odds.
Titles like Mario, Zelda, Halo, Portal, Half-Life, Doom, The Last of Us, Resident Evil, Destiny – essentially every hero’s journey game where you can die ever…
And don’t get me started on high-score style arcade games…
So many games put you in a situation where you’re required to learn a mechanic or execute actions in order to stay alive and move the story forward (or get a higher score than someone else – effectively moving your story forward).
If you fail, you die a temporary death and you try again.
This, my friend, is the story of your life encapsulated in a very, very small form.
Boredom
Consistency, focus, resiliency, determination, motivation, and discipline are all things that we constantly strive for when we’re trying to better ourselves.
If we could only wake up every day and always feel good, have energy, love ourselves well, and work – we’d have it made, right?
Except, if you executed well every day – you’d get bored and hate your life.
Think about it – it’s very likely that you’ve held a job that didn’t require a lot of effort or creativity.
I once worked at a Panera-esque sandwich shop (this was before Panera was a thing). I had to clean dishes, I had to follow recipes so simple they put microwaving food to shame, I had to learn which big well-written buttons to hit to take someone’s order, I had to learn to count money and act jolly for 15 seconds when someone was a jerk.
While necessary and helpful, none of those skills or lessons I picked up at that job were life altering.
If I were still at that job – therefore having over a decade of mastery – I could likely do everything to near perfection. I would also be mind numbingly bored.
Why?
Because the challenge would be entirely gone.
There would be nothing new to learn. No new way to “fail up”. No craft left to master.
This is part of the reason why so many games work so well on us – even to the point of becoming addictive.
This is part of the reason why many disciplines of work never get boring to some people – there’s always a new way to grow.
And this is part of how your life works.
Life’s Plot Twist
It probably twists your brain to think about – but there’s a high degree of chance that you actually love failure. You, to a point, crave it.
And maybe you’ll say I’m oversimplifying things and want to craft a tale that you only like certain kinds of failure. You’d probably agree with me if I said that you don’t really like walking into a room full of people and coming off like an idiot – bombing on stage, for instance.
But I’d say, as weird as it is, there’s part of you that does.
While failure sucks – we all want to throw a controller at our screens on occasion when it feels like the challenge is unfair – very few of us quit gaming altogether permanently for that reason.
You’ll either pick the game back up and try again, or pick up another one. You’ll get frustrated at a part, and get beyond it.
And, if it gets really frustrating and you stick with it?
That feeling of overcoming the odds when you when is incredible. You’ll spike your controller, you’ll run around the room hollering with your arms in the air, fist pumping.
And, consequently, you’ve built resilience, determination, motivation, discipline, focus, and probably consistency all at the same time.
So, take it out of games.
What situation are you frustrated by that you’re having trouble mastering?
What work are you afraid of returning to for fear that it’ll kick you back down on your butt again?
What “boss character” are you afraid of being critiqued by?
Where do you feel like you can’t continue your hero’s journey, or get the highest score?
Try again.
Maybe it won’t feel good right off the bat – but you’re built through your failures. You learn and grow from them.
And when you overcome?
I look forward to you running around and celebrating so loud we can all hear you.
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