Recently, I’ve been thinking about how wrong I have been doing things in my life. Oddly enough, it actually started by thinking about video games. When I play video games I rarely get myself to finish them because in the end I strive for perfection in the things I actually do. Which I guess is why I rarely do things. Using Final Fantasy 7 as an example, I didn’t beat this game until 3 years later after I had started the game. I had decided to restart the game multiple times to strive for “the perfect game” which turned out to be the problem and the true root of my problems. Translating this into my real life it all makes perfect since. Whenever I have gone to school or tried to do anything I always try to do it perfectly by reading every line, never following the study skills I’ve been taught. Usually, I was told that I should use the study guides or notes to decide what to focus on the most. I would always try to memorize everything about the class without focusing on the things that my instructors told me mattered. The problem with this surfaces when I get about halfway to three fourths of the way through the quarter and fall behind. If I take a different approach will it all change? Will I be able to finish the classes? We shall see.
Until I get back into school however, which should be pretty soon, I have decided to practice a new approach at life, starting with what I do the most. Playing video games. From now on I plan on just playing through the story-line without trying to do every side-quest and kill every extra boss. This stuff I will save for the second play through. Hopefully, if I can get myself to follow this strategy in something like games I will also be able to follow it in school and life.
Haiku Said:
on August 25, 2008 at 10:16 am
You have the right idea here. The reason I never had to study in high school and through most of college isn’t because I could simply memorize everything the first time, but that I could pick out the important things and just memorize those.
I look at things mathematically. If you try to remember thousands of math facts, 1+1… 1+2… 1+3…, it will take a long time. But if you can just understand the concept of addition, then you never have to study another math fact concerning addition again. A similar approach can be used in just about every other subject (except accounting, which requires the memorization of formulas… fucking accounting).
Ganbatte ne!