Setting a Routine: A Transition into Adulting.

Hello WordPress, today I want to talk about setting up a routine and why that can sometimes be a challenge for people like me. Nobody can prepare you for the transition into adult life except yourself. There are certain aspects of living that are just not talked about within our education system. So, it may feel hectic whenever a person is trying to make a decent living, and they can’t help but drown in the downpour of their own misunderstandings.

Understanding Work Flow.

This brings me to my first discovery; the importance of understanding work flow. I’m sure a lot of the people reading this have come across the word hustle at some point in their lives. It is a term that is used frequently in this generation’s conversations, and it serves as a symbol of a lifestyle that can be dangerous to most. Recently, I adopted this lifestyle myself and to me it meant that I was going to work harder and more frequently in order to reach the unorganized goals that I had subliminally set for myself. I later felt the repercussions of my own behavior change because I was purposefully sacrificing my times of leisure and recreation in order to make more room in my life for my work. Now that I have analyzed this behavior in hindsight, I realize that the phrase “going nowhere fast” rings truer than ever. Work flow for me involves peaks and valleys. I’ll go on a streak of supernatural efficiency but then my energy will soon plummet and I will want to do nothing more than read or play video games. I needed something a little more consistent; I needed balance.

The Solution.

The balance that I was longing for lied within a form of organization called routine.

“A sequence of actions regularly followed; a fixed program.”

Oxford Dictionary

I like to stay busy and I tend to want to try a lot of different things. This sometimes hinders my work and hobbies because I seldom focus on developing a single skill. Developing a routine helped me focus by allowing me to assign certain activities to certain time slots within my day. My main source of income right now is very flexible and so this helped me play around with what worked best for me. I have certain things like work, meditation, journaling, creating content and drinking coffee that I like to set aside time for. By assigning these tasks into time slots I am then able to manage my free time much more effectively. Ultimately this makes me a happier person and I would love to hear from you about how your daily routine affects you.

Mindfulness. Empathy. Creativity.

My Top 5 Favorite Video Games of All-time.

Hello WordPress, today I want to talk about playing video games growing up. In case you haven’t heard, Borderlands 3 came out this weekend and its a large part of the reason why I did not post on this blog last week. I’ve been playing that game a lot in my free time and now I want to talk about some other nostalgic titles that I have placed within my top 5.

• Super Mario Odyssey
• Rocket League
• Gladius
• Star Wars Battlefront 2
• Sly Cooper

Super Mario Odyssey

First off, lets talk about Super Mario Odyssey. This game is so incredibly easy for me to talk about because I still play it to this day. It’s less of a nostalgia factor and more so the aesthetic beauty of the 3D Mario game itself. The game is similar to other Mario titles in the since that you are trying to save Peach from the fiery giant turtle named Bowser. I have always loved the vast amount of imagination that can be found within the Nintendo Universe. Surely enough, their is no shortage of such imagination within Super Mario Odyssey. There are a variety of planets that can be visited and each stage and world is created with pure creativity and cultural appreciation. Super Mario Odyssey knows how to place me into a sublime feeling of wonderment that makes me want to come back over and over and over again.

Rocket League

Now, Rocket League is the first competitive game that made me feel like I genuinely needed to practice to keep up with my friends. I truly feel like some of my friends are apex gamers and they are extremely quick learners. I specifically remember practicing aerials and then jumping into a friendly game and getting straight dunked on…on repeat. Whenever I asked my friends how they flew through the air so effortlessly they told me that they just practice a lot. I have two friends that currently play for collegiate teams and two friends that are ranked grand champion. Unfortunately, I never quite caught up to their level but I am significantly better than most people that I talk to and that feeds my gamer ego a little more than when I got dunked on daily. I still play Rocket League weekly and I don’t plan on putting it down anytime soon.

Gladius

This pick is almost exclusively nostalgic. The basis of Gladius is to recruit a variety gladiators to your gladiator school and conquer the arenas. Gladius is a turn-based strategy game that came out on Xbox, Gamecube, and Playstation 2 in 2003. I played this game with my dad and he absolutely loved it. There was so much to do and so many different options for recruiting gladiators. Every gladiator could be customized and had certain experience levels. It was my first introduction into team building and I think about how fantastic it would be to get a remake on the daily.

Star Wars Battlefront 2

Talk about great games that can be played locally. I think that my friends and I put more hours into this title than any other game I have ever played. This game is an action shooter that places you straight into the middle of a battle on one of the many planets that populate the Star Wars Universe. My favorite mode is called “Hero Assault” I think, and it allows you to play as some of the Jedi and heroes from the movie trilogy. I loved to jump around as Yoda while my friends were playing a hero with a gun because it just seemed unfair to fight without a lightsaber at that point. One more aspect of Star Wars Battlefront 2 that sets it apart from the rest of video games is its interactive space battles. There are game modes that allow you to fight your friends in space by either invading their ship or destroying their fleet. All in all, I have many fond memories of playing this wonderful game with my friends and getting way to heated whenever I would lose.

Sly Cooper

Finally, the source of my all-time favorite character, Sly Cooper. The second game, Sly Cooper 2 Band Of Thieves, was probably my favorite game from the series and I remember specific story mode missions that give me chills just thinking about them. I also remember a mode where you could play mini-games against your friends that would provide us with hours of entertainment. The characters were well created and the stages were crafted with creativity and a sense of stealth that helped make the series so great to play. Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful time pursuing anything that fascinates you. Mindfulness. Empathy. Creativity.

My Morning Cup Of Mindfulness.

Introduction and Credibility.

The world runs better whenever her citizens are properly caffeinated. Not that it’s citizens care too much about the world but simply put, coffee helps get the work done. Today I want to talk about one aspect of coffee that I think is terribly overlooked. I am very much so a coffee connoisseur and I would love to connect more with the coffee communities around Central Texas. I drink coffee everyday, I read books about coffee roasting and I used to intern at the only specialty coffee shop that could be found in San Marcos, Texas. A lovely coffee shop that I have watched grow from a coffee truck in San Marcos into a brick-and-mortar store in Southeast San Antonio. This coffee shop is called Cafe Azteca and I encourage you to check it out if you ever find yourself in the area.

Coffee Is Not Fuel America.

First off, coffee is incredibly popular in North America but does that mean that we should mass produce lackluster coffee beans? It is a hypothetical question that usually segues into a discussion about coffee ethics and the companies that market the trend. Coffee nowadays is marketed in many different shapes and sizes. The emergence of K-cups and instant coffee have shifted the focus of coffee in a direction that is practical but lacks a certain type of romanticism. Yes coffee can wake you up, but why do we have to strip such a fantastic luxury into something as simple as an energy drink?

“Coffee is friend NOT fuel.”

Dory The Fish

The Missing Piece of Romanticism.

Finally, I’ll tell you what romantic aspect I think is missing from the way that the Western World drinks coffee. This aspect is called mindfulness.

“Mindfulness– a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique. “

Oxford Dictionary

Mindfulness to me represents the human mind’s ability to perceptually slow down time. The best cups of coffee that I have ever had all start with set and setting. Typically, I wake up in the morning and once my body naturally begins to wake up; I throw my coffee in the French press. After the coffee is done brewing, I grab my mug and then climb out my window. I make sure to leave my phone inside and then I shimmy my way into a perfect nook beneath the roof of our building and the slopes of our shingles. Then; with no distractions in mind, I sit there and I think about where I am at and drink my cup of mindfulness. This helps me practice perspective and this helps me clear my mind. It is my favorite part of my daily routine and I thank God everyday for the opportunity to share that experience with the environment around me.

Final Thoughts.

So, now that I’ve shared my favorite part about coffee. What is your favorite part? Make sure to drop a comment by selecting the button below. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day ahead of you.

Mindfulness, Empathy, Creativity!

What I like about working for Favor.

Hello WordPress, my name is Cole and I want to expand on a couple of key points about why I choose to run Favors. I am still very new to the company and I want to make sure that everybody knows that this post is not affiliated or sponsored by the company Favor. This post manifests itself from my personal experiences and the gratitude that I hold for the company’s culture.

“A cup of Joe keeps the work in flow.” – Anonymous

My Orientation With Favor.

The reason why I decided to work with Favor was because I had recently quit my last job and I was looking for something to pay the bills while I searched for a more fulfilling career. I knew that Favor allowed you to create your own schedule and I had an idea that they delivered food. Upon attending the orientation I quickly learned that Favor delivers way more than just food. My orientation leader was a phenomenal speaker and he told us stories of deliveries that made him feel fulfilled. His presentation was professional and the way he interacted with us was friendly and casual. The company’s culture was focused, refined and socially active. After the presentation was finished and we all got our runner cards, my orientation leader told us about a variety of fun events that Favor hosts. They even hosted a bowling night at the Spot shortly after the orientation where I was told that the company provided free bowling and food.

All in all, here are a few of the reasons why I support Favor.

Favor is backed by HEB.

The first reason why I support favor is because they are business partners with HEB. HEB is a fantastic company that has held a special place in my heart for years on end. The grocery store chain can be found in almost any major Texas city and it represents something similar to southern pride. It is the only grocery store that I shop at and I was pleasantly surprised to hear that they worked closely with Favor. This also means that Favor is one of the only delivery services that can deliver beer and wine. I have already had multiple grocery deliveries through their curbside pickup program and each delivery has tipped me exceptionally well. This partnership also gives me a sense of job security because I know that HEB is here to stay, and I know that Texans will continue to shop there.

The Hours Are Flexible.

To sum up the words of my favorite motivational speaker Gary Vaynerchuk, everybody needs a side hustle. Favor is one of the best side hustles you can have because you can work whenever you want. Believe it or not, people have things to do and these things take up time. If you are working a full-time job, what better way to earn some extra cash than to jump in your car and run random favors for people. Not only are you able to make extra money whenever you want but you are also saving time for the person who ordered the delivery. Time is extremely valuable and I am sure that the people ordering deliveries are just as busy as we are.

Exposure To Local Businesses.

The third reason why I support Favor is because it allows me to step foot into local businesses that I have never been to. I never go to certain parts of town and that is now more apparent then ever. Throughout recent deliveries I now have started to get a feel for what types of businesses operate in those same parts of town. It is astonishing to me how vastly different the culture of one side of a city can be from another side. Personally, I am always on an active quest to find the best breakfast tacos in town and now I have discovered a couple of food trucks that I plan to visit in the near future. In addition to discovering new businesses, this hustle also encourages me to learn street names and geographical markers. It is a whole different world whenever you are looking for a street that cannot be found on Google maps. It can also be very frustrating to learn that building 7 is not adjacent to building 8 or 6 inside the apartment complex that you are delivering to. Although, if it wasn’t for these sometimes uncomfortable experiences I would not have learned the “In’s and Out’s” of navigating San Marcos, Texas.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I am very happy that I have aligned myself with Favor and I plan to stick around for as long as they will support me. Now all I have to do is find a fantastic full-time job that will support me just as well as Favor has.

Big magic: a Book Review

Hello WordPress, recently I have been reading a book written by Elizabeth Gilbert called “Big Magic.” There are hundreds of reasons why I would recommend this book to an artist but I want to talk about the few reasons why I would recommend it to anyone.

Reason #1.

• Elizabeth Gilbert helps frame fulfillment.

The first reason why I would recommend this book is because It helps me frame and understand the concept of fulfillment. Elizabeth Gilbert talks about how she decides that she wants to dedicate her life to writing and creativity. She claims that creating things brings her the most joy and fulfillment. Her writing is more for herself than anything else and she warns that there is a great chance that nobody will care about the thing that you create and care for. Fulfillment stems from weather or not the thing you care about brings you true happiness and fulfillment.

Reason #2.

• She offers a valuable perspective on dedication.

The second reason why I would recommend this book is because Elizabeth Gilbert does a fantastic job of explaining that dedication is not all sacrifice. She paints this portrait of a starving artist; being someone whose best creative works come from moments of addiction, sorrow, depression and stress. She warns that too many people pursue a dream and then end up significantly damaging themselves through tunnel vision. It is important to remain mindful when working towards your dreams because often times as humans we tend to become irrational whenever we grow passionate about something.

Reason #3.

• She talks about the utilities of failure.

The third reason why I would recommend this book is so that readers can acknowledge how Elizabeth views failure. Elizabeth Gilbert’s resolve remains static throughout the whole book because she knows that her success stems from commitment. She talks about books that she finished and never published and how she would immediately move onto her next project rather than grieving over the time “wasted.” The trick within the statement is that Gilbert doesn’t view this time as wasted but rather as time spent training. Prior to reading these parts of Big Magic, I would worry that any time spent not writing was time wasted. If I wasn’t being productive I would worry about my well-being. I recognize this as the path of the starving artist. Perhaps the most important takeaway for me is that I should never strive to become a starving artist. I want to build a mutually beneficial relationship with creativity and I want our relationship to remain healthy. All in all, Big Magic is now one of my favorite reads and I am incredibly grateful to have read it.

Deconstructing Self-Improvement.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Polish Before You Shine.

Hello WordPress, today I want to talk about why I think that the term self-improvement is over saturated. A thought crossed my mind today about creative collaboration. It stems out of a twitter post I saw that showed a picture of some writers from The Simpsons collaborating with each other over fast food and soft drinks. Now, if you were to take away the context of all these people being writers from the Simpsons– you would almost feel sorry for them. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were writing for a major TV show, they would seem like they were quite mundane or rather ordinary. My point is, is that any one of these people could have been doing something else, but instead they decided to create one of the most popular cartoons over burgers and soda. This is a task that would have been much much harder for any single writer to accomplish on their own.

Strength Lies Within the Numbers.

There are tasks in this world that are simply easier to accomplish with more than one person. For example, take a look at the stock market. It doesn’t matter if you are the Houdini of picking stocks if you don’t have the capital to invest. That is the exact reason why these investment firms are combining their capital together in order to invest into a larger payout based on the gross percentage of profit earned among all of the people who shared their capital.

If that example doesn’t work for you, try this one. Imagine that you are Dwayne The Rock Johnson and you really want to fight and defeat a Silverback Gorilla in an all out brawl. There are no weapons involved and you would be fighting the gorilla in an open field. It would be naive to think that you could simply approach the gorilla in a 1v1 head on match-up because the gorilla is simply stronger. But… if there were lets say 5 Dwayne The Rock Johnsons, it would be a different scenario. It would still be a close drawn out battle but I am confident that the squadron of “Rocks” would be able to conquer the king of the jungle.

In conclusion, there is strength within numbers and that is a relatively valid cliche. It is easy to go at things alone if you are a self-motivator like me, but it is smarter to go at it with friends, family and partners of every sort. Even a true adventurer like Link from the Legend of Zelda series needs a companion. Even if that companion is an annoying orb of light that talks and provides you with sub-par guidance throughout the entire game.

“It is dangerous to go alone! Take this.”

Old Man who gives Link a sword.

Shared-Improvement.

All in all, self-improvement comes second nature to those who show self-care. The real fulfilling nature of chasing your dreams lies within the idea of chasing those dreams together. To share your experience with others in order to reach towards something that is mutually beneficial to everyone is the greatest opportunity we have as humans. We are stronger together but the times drift us apart. This is a call to action for those who understand what it means to enhance the world around us. When times get tough and we fall short of our goals– we need to remember this. Everybody brings something brilliant to the table, everybody can create and everybody is unique. Learn together, create together, share together and most importantly– learn from one another.

Mindfulness. Empathy. Creativity.

What I Am Grateful For.

Life is great and I am grateful. Every step I take brings me closer towards my ambitions and this is what I take comfort in…

“All I know for certain is that this is how I want to spend my life–collaborating to the best of my ability with forces of inspiration that I can neither see, nor prove, nor command, nor understand.”

Elizabeth Gilbert

Grateful For Those Around Me.

No feeling, other than love, trumps that of receiving genuine interest. I am blessed and grateful to have people in my life who are genuinely interested in establishing a connection. My family loves me, my girlfriend supports me, and my friends inspire me. I often times isolate myself whenever I want to work on something and this sometimes serves as an obstacle in my relationships. My closest relationships understand this and for that I am especially grateful.

The only reason I mention these things is because I have seen people sacrifice parts of themselves in order to spend more time satisfying others. It is important in my life that I have plenty of time to chase my dreams and learn things about myself. People are more than their resume, more than their appearance, more than their possessions and especially more than their personality. There are certain experiences that people encounter that simply can not be shared adequately. Although, one experience that people can share is the wonderful experience of the present…and for this I am grateful.

Grateful For My Situation

Time is fleeting only if you choose not to pay attention. Whenever I take a step back from worrying I realize how truly privileged I am. Surely, I can find something to complain about, but today I chose to acknowledge all of the wonderful things that make my life what it is. The universe has a wonderful way of reminding me that life truly is what I make of it. I can choose to be complacent but instead I crave fulfillment.

“If my plan is to sit around waiting for another such unadulterated and impassioned creative visitation, I may be waiting for a very long time. So I don’t sit around waiting to write until my genius decides to pay me a visit. If anything, I have come to believe that my genius spends a lot of time waiting around for me–waiting to see if i’m truly serious about this line of work.”

Elizabeth Gilbert

…And for this I am grateful.

Storyboarding an Idea for a Novel.

How I Started planning

Notoriously known for jumping straight into projects, I have decided to take an unfamiliar approach this time. I decided that I wanted to plot out the events, setting and significance of an idea I had for a novel. Ironically, I did not originally have an idea for a novel but I did engage in an impulsive attempt to generate an idea for a novel. So nevertheless, I grabbed my dry-erase markers, my journal, my sketchbook and my two homemade whiteboards and then I got to brainstorming.

• 

Jotting down the structure

The first thing that I started thinking about was the setting. I started writing down every place that I thought would serve as a good environment for the plot. In the past I would have just jumped straight into the plot (the what is happening) and then implement a setting as I go. I now realize that for me this process is naive. I wanted to have a concrete understanding of what kind of world it was that I would be writing within. I came up with ideas ranging from The Gulf Coast, all the way up to a frontier space station. After eliminating an endless amount of places I finally found a place that I took comfort in. I chose a setting that I am well acquainted with because I decided that it would be easier to write within. I thought that if I was to truly delve into the details of my novel setting, I would need somewhere that I am connected to.

Background

Upon finding a setting that I was confident in, I then decided to work towards building an idea of what kind of life the characters would be living in. I started jotting down possible time periods, economics, demographics, technologies and ecological characteristics. I wanted to get a feel of what kind of external pressures I can work with to develop the most interesting plot. A setting that will interest a reader.

The Main Character

Now that I had a when and a where, I began creating a who. In comparison to the setting, I chose to make the main character someone I could relate to. Someone that reflected my core values and even some of my own personality traits. In contrast, I did not want to make myself the main character in fear that it would skew an interesting plot line. After I got a gist of who the character was, I started brainstorming names that I felt will be both catchy and reflective of the setting that I previously constructed.

The Backbone to My Plot

Finally, the plot is the hardest part of planning and requires the most time constructing. I realized that I would not be able to design the plot in a whole day. So, instead I designed a broad plot that directs me in the direction that I would like to take my writing.

The Final Rundown

All in all, the result of yesterday’s session is an adventure story. The idea takes place in a rural swamp (potentially Louisiana/East Texas) during the mid 1800’s. The main character’s name is Willy LeFleur and he lives in a rural town placed at the entrance of the swamp with his sister Wiley LeFleur, mother and a father who is a contract fisherman.

The father left for a contract fishing trip down by the coast and has not returned in months. Willy’s mother, sister and he are struggling to survive due to the lack of income. One day a steamboat rolls into the dock of Willy’s hometown. An old man who owns the boat takes a keen interest in Willy upon initial introduction. Later that day, Willy returns home from a day of fishing in the swamp to find the old man and his mother chatting in the house. The old man tells the mother that he would like to purchase Willy to help fish, clean and circumnavigate the swamp for an expedition to the nearby coast. Willy is not interested in leaving with the old man until his sister explains to him that the family will not survive without the money. Willy decides that he wants to help his family on his own accord, only to find out that his mother has agreed to the conditions without Willy’s consent.

Willy is concerned about the conditions because he only knows half of the way to the coast because that is as far as his dad has ever taken him. Willy ends up successfully navigating the swamp for the expedition after conquering a large variety of obstacles placed along the way.

Upon returning home from the expedition, Willy finds that his family’s house has been reclaimed by Mother Nature. The house has been abandoned and a majority of the things within the house have been either stolen or ruined by the environment. Willy is left with a lot of questions about what has happened and where his family has gone.

“Let me know what you all think, what you all suggest and what you find interesting. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day.”

Cole Lamkins

Failing At Selling.

Welcome back WordPress, today I want to talk about my experience with failing in a sales job. I have been working a job in sales for the past two months and I have found this position to be much more challenging than originally anticipated. I am currently looking for a new job and so I decided that I wanted to reflect on some of the aspects of the job that did not work for me. The program that I will be addressing is labeled as a management training program. The position caught my eye because the company trains individuals to run their own business after a year within the program. All in all, I do not think that the program is necessarily bad but I did decide that it was not the right path for me.

What it is like to fail at a sales job.

• Perfecting Your Pitch
• Rejection Therapy
• Maintaining Your Attitude

Perfecting Your Pitch

To kick off the training, the first thing that the company teaches you is competitor knowledge. Almost every other customer that you interact with will already have a service provided by your competitor. Your duty is to understand the competitors service well enough to convert the customer towards your service. You do this type of persuasion through what is known as your pitch. Your pitch is your money maker, if you mess up your pitch you will probably mess up the sell. Additionally, a pitch is typically made up of an introduction, some eye contact, some small talk and then finally some presentation of your product. Ironically enough, I was actually really good at my pitch. This was the most frustrating aspect of the job for me because I felt like I had refined a fantastic pitch that was just not pulling enough customers. Most customers that I interacted with were usually responsive to humor and straight up details of the service. Eventually once I started to become a little demoralized, I would adapt my pitch into a straight up conversation. At times like these I would find the conversations I had much more rewarding than the rejection I would receive after trying to sell them something.

Rejection Therapy

Now that I may piggyback off of rejection, lets talk about the mental stress that comes with being told no all day long. Oddly enough, this was the most rewarding part of the job for me. I am someone who is constantly trying to push themselves to overcome a seemingly uncomfortable situation. I often times pride myself on being good at being alone. This is not a depressing statement but rather I think this is an important quality for someone who can become self-motivated. Therefore, this preconceived belief that I had about myself was deconstructed whenever I was surrounded by people who did not want anything to do with me. I already felt intrusive pitching to people who seemed busy and so this made it even harder of a fall whenever I would get rude responses from people who were genuinely bothered by my presence.

Q: You know whats more lonely than being alone?

A: Being surrounded by people who will not even acknowledge your presence… and then being tasked with selling something to them.

Cole Lamkins

Maintaining Your Attitude

Perspective is one hell of a life changer. I came into work thinking that I was a salesman. The high-rollers in the office were coming into work thinking they were customer service representatives who offered solutions to service problems. Can you see the difference in how each of those sentences make you feel. That one flip in mindset was all that it took to change their work lives for the better. I saw their paychecks and I knew exactly why they were maintaining that mindset. If I could not offer a service that was better than what my customer was already receiving, than I did not feel comfortable making that sell. These ladies and gents on the other hand truly believed that the service we offered was superior. This means that they believe that they are helping each and every customer make a superior financial decision that would benefit both the seller and the customer. I asked a couple of these high-rollers how they maintained their attitudes. The average answer was that it was mostly willpower. They said that they were like completely different people outside of work. I understood this because I would come home mentally exhausted from putting up a friendly mask all day long that would help me make sales. This is where I found that my work was conflicting with my aspirations of cultivating a creative spark on my free time. This is why I failed at sales, and this is why it is important to fail in general.

To leave you all with some food for thought. In my two weeks notice I recently asked the oldest coworker in the office some advice for living out my twenties. My co-worker responded by saying:

“You are too young to not be making mistakes. Make mistakes while your young and that is what will help you grow.”

Jim James

“Failure is only a stepping stone towards the path to success. Without failure we would not understand growth.”

Cole Lamkins

Four Lessons From One Week of Old School Runescape.

What’s going on WordPress, today I want to talk about the week I spent in January playing Old School Runescape. For those of you that don’t know, OSRS is a point and click RPG video game that was extremely popular back when I was in intermediate school. The basis of the game is to level up your character in a variety of different skills that will allow you to interact with harder content further into the game. It is extremely time intensive to grind out those levels and I have a large amount of respect for players who are able to reach level 99. I have a couple of friends who still play the game daily and I was very into chopping down trees back when I was a young adult. So, due to a conversation with a fellow Ultimate Frisbee teammate of mine, I decided to tryout the game again for the sake of fun and nostalgia. After a week of playing I took away four primary insights that can be applied to life in the real world. These four insights are:

• Do Something Always.
• There Are Multiple Ways to Reach Your End Goal.
• Tunnel Vision is a Powerful Tool.
• It is OK to be Mindfully Mindless…Sometimes.

Staying busy

In OSRS there are two primary resources that you are going to be wanting to gather. These two resources are experience and gold. The most efficient way to play the game is to gather both of these simultaneously. This way of playing can be overwhelming to new players because there is a tremendous amount of ways to get one without the other. The variety of activities within Runescape typically leave new players frozen between making a decision on which activity they would like to do. This leads me to my first rhetorical question. Do you know whats better than thinking about the best ways to gain gold and experience at the same time? The answer is actually doing an activity that will allow you to gain gold or experience. I feel like often times in life we get stuck between deciding what it is that we should be doing. The process of deciding what to do often times consumes the precious time that we could be using towards improving a certain aspect of our life. Whether this is making money, working out, or even focusing on alleviating mental stress; It is important to just do something if not anything that will benefit you in the long run.

Multiple paths available

At first, my goal in OSRS was to earn enough gold in-game in order to purchase one month of membership. Think of this like the Hulu spotify deal without commercials. Once I started my grind that was chopping down trees and fishing lobster, I quickly realized that this was a much harder goal than I had originally expected. Therefore, my next and final goal was to try and experience as much of the free-to-play quest lines as possible. That means that rather than focusing on efficiency, I could instead explore the games content. During my grind towards membership I quickly realized that their were a lot of different ways to earn gold and experience. Additionally, I started to understand that time was my most valuable resource. What I failed to understand though, was that whenever I was exploring the game I was also working towards my original goal of obtaining membership. In life there are infinite amounts of opportunities that will potentially lead you towards fulfillment in life. With this in mind, I plan to stray away from the mindset that there is only one way that I can work towards my long-term goals. Instead, I am going to see which paths it is that life presents me and then adapt my short-term goals based on those same options.

Tunnel Vision

In OSRS there are 23 different skills that get exponentially harder and harder to level up as the game progresses. All of the skills contain a multitude of activities that fall within various tiers of difficulty. The highest tier activity for any given skill typically provides the most experience and often times yields the heftiest coin payout. This is why the most common method of leveling up a character is to focus on one skill in particular. This allows you to farm the highest tier resources within the early stages of the game.

” If you’re lucky enough to be good at what you like, become tunnel vision.”

Gary Vaynerchuk

Imagine if Lionel Messi had spent half of the time he spent training for football on learning the culinary arts. He probably would not continue to hold the title of being the best football player in the world. He might still break the top five…but that is besides the point. The point is, the reason why Messi is the best is because he lives a life dedicated to football. This is why focusing on that one thing you love the most can often times lead to the most fulfillment in life. Such as reaching level 99 woodcutting in OSRS because you love chopping down virtual trees.

It is ok to do nothing

Finally, one of the hardest but most rewarding things I found about OSRS was the idea of spending time doing tedious activities for what seemed like an eternity. I constantly found myself questioning why I was playing the game and whether or not I was wasting my day. After the first couple of days I began to find the game play to be relaxing and somewhat a challenge. I found the discovery of new farming methods to be very rewarding and fairly difficult. I also enjoyed just talking in chat with a lot of my friends who have become veterans of the game themselves. Anyways, this experience that I had within OSRS reminded me of an important takeaway that I discovered through working as well. This takeaway is that sometimes you have to allow your brain to wander and rest for the sake of your own well-being. It is ok to do nothing whenever you find yourself overworked. More often than not, your body tends to perform better after longer intervals of rest. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed my time on OSRS but I would not recommend it for the sole reason that the game play can become very addictive. Additionally, please let me know if you have ever played Oldschool Runescape and also what you thought about it in the comments.