Life is Like A Game

The Idea

This lesson is something that has been taught to me via Rocket League and its coaches. There are three mindsets that you can have while playing Rocket League or living life; Playing for fun, playing to win, and playing to learn / improve.

Playing for Fun

Playing for fun is just doing the game for enjoyment. Living life just for the sake of enjoying your time, not caring about your rank or position, not caring about how good you are, just playing. This does not benefit the user other than stress relief and creating a relaxed environment.

Playing to Win

Playing to win is try-harding. Doing everything you can in order to attain victory or success and increase your rank. In life, this can be working, creating, or any other task that warrants effort and improvement. Something that you take seriously and put effort into. While this is likely to increase your rank, it will not help you improve your skills (at least not immediately, we will get to that). This is a flow-esque state where everything comes naturally from everything you’ve learned before this moment. The car feels like a part of you, as natural as an extension of your own body. You don’t have to think about strategy because you already know what you are going to do in the given situation.

Playing to Learn / Improve

Playing to learn / improve is a state of self-improvement and analysis. You cannot play to win and improve at the same time (at least not effectively) because playing to improve will likely lower your rank. You are constantly analyzing and thinking about the thing that you are currently doing, which will slow you down, but will lead to being better in the long run. This can also be practicing a particular skill above others, causing you to drop a different skill or tone it down so you can focus on the one thing. In life, this could be taking a moment when you think you are about to make a bad decision and analyzing the why, as well as reasoning what you should be doing instead. This self-analysis in the moment will help you to make better decisions in the future.

Reflection

In addition to playing to improve, you can also get experience and information about the time you were playing to win during reflection. In the case of Rocket League, this is saving the replay and going over it in order to see where you went wrong and what improvements can be made. In life, this is doing reflection on a consistent period, be it daily, weekly, or other timeframes. This will allow you time to look at yourself and times where you were trying to succeed and see why you failed and how you can do better.

Coaching

Everyone from the beginner to the master need coaching. Even top-tier Rocket League players or athletes have coaches that help them reflect on themselves from an external perspective. You can coach yourself, but having someone external to help you improve — be it a better player or someone with a lot of knowledge on the subject — can help you increase your speed of improvement.