How Pac-Man Helped My Personal Development

When I’m having writers block, the first thing I do is turn off the internet. The second thing I do is… play Pac-Man.

I have a Pac-Man machine in my home. It is surprisingly helpful whenever I need to start an article or pick a needle out of the haystack.

Why does Pac-Man help me so much? The idea about Pac-Man, or any video game, is that it can only be used for one resource: pleasure or fun. When I play Pac-Man, however, I start to brainstorm ideas for my life. I have a feeling Pac-Man reminds me of self-improvement for a few different reasons:

1. Overcome adversity

Just like when you do anything in life, you want to succeed if there is an antagonist. Villains promote evil and stomping out evil is usually the goal of many. When you play Pac-Man, the adversity is simply enough the ghosts.

Now imagine that you are completing a task for the sole reason of it being bad. You are not doing it for yourself, you are not doing it for your family. You are completing that task because, for whatever reason, it is profoundly immoral. I don’t know about you, but I would be incredibly motivated to complete the goal.

2. Lose your mind

You should do what? Lose your mind? Yes, please do. It’ll help you fly to new heights. Taking your mind out of a stressful situation could be one of the best things you’ve done all month. You can do this through Pac-Man, or whatever you love to do. Sometimes it’s best to just forget everything except Pac-Man. It doesn’t just have to be a video game, though. Try losing your mind in something that you love to do. Then sneak a thought at your blog, or a task you want to accomplish.

My last post, 30 Ways Reasons To Believe In Yourself, was done like this:

1. Play Pac-Man and have a pen and paper right aside the machine.
2. Write down an idea whenever it came to me.

Thanks to this strategy, I already had eighteen reasons, only twelve more to go. It seemed that focusing on something other than writing actually increased my chances for success in a shorter amount of time. Always take my advice for what it’s worth. There is no absolute guarantee losing your mind is going to work for you. I mean the expression “losing your mind” does call out those who are crazy.

3. Winning feels good

There is nothing better than basking in glory as you hold the championship trophy above your head while confetti comes down in an aerial attack. There is really nothing better.

I may be getting a little competitive here, but once you acheive your high score in a game of Pac-Man, you have the need, urge and incentive to do well. I wouldn’t say that you are going to dominate the world with a game, but you will certainly start to achieve those long term goals.

Wrapping things up

The truth be told, I don’t think you are going to go play the Pac-man game, or you might just in spite of me, but that is not the important part. The message I hope to convey to you is doing the things you love to do, but never saw as important, can be just that.

What helps you wake up in the morning could be what brings you closer to success. Taking these things out of your routine could be potentially bad for you.

If you like playing saxophone, please keep playing saxophone. If you love to hack life, please keep hacking life. You are only going to find success in the little things in life that are indirectly important.