Life Lessons from a Video Game

Hey blog world. For those of you that know me, you know Im a video game freak. For those that don't well, now you know. I had my first video game when I was nine and SEGA was the heaven of video games. At the time, I had an 8 bit contra and I remember the embarrasment when my friends chose to go to another boy's house instead of mine because he has a 16 bit sega, and I had contra. Even as young as I was, I hated not being the ish. So from then, there was no new game that I didnt own, I went on from Sega, to Nintendo 64 and hand held Gamboy to PS and PS2. Now am grown, and dont care as much about cool points, but as far as gaming is concerned, I still stay on top of it.
Anyway, my friend and I were going at it on the xbox today when he scored a freekick from a long range. Now, if ur familiar with soccer, you know thats a pretty rare occurence, I dont care how good you are. So I sat back and waited while dude replayed the freekick over and over, slowly following the flight of the ball as it sank into the net. He would pull the ball back to point it left the kick taker's foot, and then gently relive the goal. I understood. It was his moment.
And it hit me that in a way that is what we do when we get a taste of success. In our minds, we relive that moment, over and over...seeing the events that led up to it. Its our way of saying 'this is the ideal'. It burns into our consciousness and lights us up. Think back at when you got admitted into college, or when you landed that first major award, or contract, or whatever it is that signifies success in your field. In your mind, you linger in that moment. And what happens is, you take that blueprint and follow it wherever you go. Personally, I wouldnt replay that goal. Its still rare for me to score, but Ive done it enough times for it to lose its charm. That shows that you dont linger in that moment, for that moments sake. You relive it so that when the time comes, when the goals are bigger, and the stakes higher, you can amplify and recreate that success. And that is what the replay does. Its a rehearsal, for bigger arrivals. So when next you hear that nothing can be learnt from playing games, think again.