http://zelda.com/skywardsword/ Typically the advice I offer you doesn't involve murder.
Today it does.
Before Link Had To Die
My wife grew up playing The Legend of Zelda, an action, adventure and puzzle solving game on Nintendo game systems. There have been numerous installments of The Legend of Zelda over the past 25 years, and Link is the main character and hero of them all.
Last year my wife got interested in these games again, and she made it clear that she wanted the latest chapter in this series, Skyward Sword. Since I listen to my wife most of the time (and you should too), I got it for her as a surprise bonus-gift for Christmas.
Somehow it became a family event when my wife got around to cracking open the game. She started playing, and one thing led to another, I found myself playing. It is a neat game. Think of it like a giant puzzle hidden behind story, characters, smaller puzzles with puzzles inside, and Wii-style action. It works the mind.
I am a sucker for stories (even bad ones). I also really like games. In my life, games have played an important role in my personal and professional development. Utilized correctly, games can be an excellent way to sharpen your saw. Also, I learned from Michael Gerber that an indicator of a quality employer is whether or not that employer makes work "a game worth playing".
I know many of you already agree. One reader, who is a trainer in corporate setting, developed a "game-ified" learning platform for which has earned him a good amount of recognition. Humans respond to games, and his platform has made a very technical and often hard thing to learn a whole lot easier for a lot of people.
Link, Now You Must Die
It all went terribly wrong.
I didn't really notice, but in a little over 2 months the game stopped being a sharpen your saw activity, and instead became a bad part-time job.
My wife was the first to mention how much time I was spending (actually wasting) with the game. My kids were next. I realized how I no longer felt that recharge after playing. My battery was a little more drained, instead a little more full. And then I saw it...the concrete thing that made it clear that Link had to die.
The game tracks how long you have been playing and it will show it to you if you look in the right spot. I looked, and it told me the horrid truth; I had logged 95 hours and 19 minutes on this thing!
Yes, you read that correctly. 95 hours and 19 minutes.
If I gave you a 100 hours, what good things could you do with that time?
About a month ago I shared with you a tool from the late Stephen Covey called the 4 Quadrants. I use it everyday to help me avoid the mistake of confusing urgency with importance. I also use it to help diagnose time problems like the one I had here. Had I used this tool on my The Legend Zelda playing sooner, I would have noticed that it was changing from a quadrant 2 activity (sharpen your saw is important, but not urgent) into a quadrant 4 activity (not urgent and not important, a.k.a. waste). My kids noticed before I did.
A good game played moderately can help you grow as a person and maintain your health. If you play a good game too much, then you are harming yourself.
So, I killed Link and stopped playing. Life's too short to waste it.
Too bad. I almost had the thing beat. I guess I'll never know the end of that story.
I want to make clear that I am not condemning The Legend of Zelda or the Wii. The problem wasn't the game. The problem was me. While Link should be dead to me, that doesn't mean he has to be dead to you.
But, I do know something about you. You have at least 1 "Link" of your own. In at least 1 area of your life you are either being deceived into believing something is important when it merely wants your attention, or you are just wasting time.
Kill your "Link" before it steals 100 precious and irreplaceable hours. Please. It's really murder in self-defense.
Now, Go Kill Your "Link": The Game
I am never going to ask you to do something that I am not willing to do myself. I want you to stop doing things that don't serve you even if you've invested a whole lot into them. I stopped the game because it wasn't serving me, even though I had put almost 100 hours into that story.
I suggest you play the game below; you'll find the activities in your life that aren't serving you and the things most important to you, and then you'll viciously kill them. Basically, you hunt down and murder your own versions of Link.
Here are the rules:
One Last Thing
Make sure you honor the "now play again" that is part of rule #6. This is not a game you play once. It is a cheap game that you can only play one time. Great games demand you play them over and over again. So does this one.
It seems counter to purpose to treat a tool like this one as if it's a 1-off practice. How valuable is tool that would eliminate your wasted time, and let's you use our non-wasted time better?
Sure, I'd rather you play this game once than not at all. But, the real drive towards purpose comes when you start analyzing in the moment what you're doing against the 4 quadrants and then adjust to eliminate deception and waste immediately.
Just ask, "Is this actually important based on my passion, my purpose and my values?" Then ask it again. Then again...and again...until you die.
Be well,
Sterling Lynk
My wife grew up playing The Legend of Zelda, an action, adventure and puzzle solving game on Nintendo game systems. There have been numerous installments of The Legend of Zelda over the past 25 years, and Link is the main character and hero of them all.
Last year my wife got interested in these games again, and she made it clear that she wanted the latest chapter in this series, Skyward Sword. Since I listen to my wife most of the time (and you should too), I got it for her as a surprise bonus-gift for Christmas.
Somehow it became a family event when my wife got around to cracking open the game. She started playing, and one thing led to another, I found myself playing. It is a neat game. Think of it like a giant puzzle hidden behind story, characters, smaller puzzles with puzzles inside, and Wii-style action. It works the mind.
I am a sucker for stories (even bad ones). I also really like games. In my life, games have played an important role in my personal and professional development. Utilized correctly, games can be an excellent way to sharpen your saw. Also, I learned from Michael Gerber that an indicator of a quality employer is whether or not that employer makes work "a game worth playing".
I know many of you already agree. One reader, who is a trainer in corporate setting, developed a "game-ified" learning platform for which has earned him a good amount of recognition. Humans respond to games, and his platform has made a very technical and often hard thing to learn a whole lot easier for a lot of people.
Link, Now You Must Die
It all went terribly wrong.
I didn't really notice, but in a little over 2 months the game stopped being a sharpen your saw activity, and instead became a bad part-time job.
My wife was the first to mention how much time I was spending (actually wasting) with the game. My kids were next. I realized how I no longer felt that recharge after playing. My battery was a little more drained, instead a little more full. And then I saw it...the concrete thing that made it clear that Link had to die.
The game tracks how long you have been playing and it will show it to you if you look in the right spot. I looked, and it told me the horrid truth; I had logged 95 hours and 19 minutes on this thing!
Yes, you read that correctly. 95 hours and 19 minutes.
If I gave you a 100 hours, what good things could you do with that time?
About a month ago I shared with you a tool from the late Stephen Covey called the 4 Quadrants. I use it everyday to help me avoid the mistake of confusing urgency with importance. I also use it to help diagnose time problems like the one I had here. Had I used this tool on my The Legend Zelda playing sooner, I would have noticed that it was changing from a quadrant 2 activity (sharpen your saw is important, but not urgent) into a quadrant 4 activity (not urgent and not important, a.k.a. waste). My kids noticed before I did.
A good game played moderately can help you grow as a person and maintain your health. If you play a good game too much, then you are harming yourself.
So, I killed Link and stopped playing. Life's too short to waste it.
Too bad. I almost had the thing beat. I guess I'll never know the end of that story.
I want to make clear that I am not condemning The Legend of Zelda or the Wii. The problem wasn't the game. The problem was me. While Link should be dead to me, that doesn't mean he has to be dead to you.
But, I do know something about you. You have at least 1 "Link" of your own. In at least 1 area of your life you are either being deceived into believing something is important when it merely wants your attention, or you are just wasting time.
Kill your "Link" before it steals 100 precious and irreplaceable hours. Please. It's really murder in self-defense.
Now, Go Kill Your "Link": The Game
I am never going to ask you to do something that I am not willing to do myself. I want you to stop doing things that don't serve you even if you've invested a whole lot into them. I stopped the game because it wasn't serving me, even though I had put almost 100 hours into that story.
I suggest you play the game below; you'll find the activities in your life that aren't serving you and the things most important to you, and then you'll viciously kill them. Basically, you hunt down and murder your own versions of Link.
Here are the rules:
- Check out my previous post on the 4 Quadrants. Even if you've read it and watched the video already, do it again.
- Create your own 4 Quadrants chart. Start classifying the stuff you do. Each thing you spend time on goes into 1 of the quadrants. This works best if you have a sense of your values and personal purpose. Otherwise, it's hard to know what's important. If you need some help with this, you can try my post on the 4 Most Important Questions. Make sure you are brutally honest.
- Do you have anything in quadrant 4? If yes, stop doing it now, and go to rule 6. If no, then go to rule 4.
- Do you have anything in quadrant 3? If yes, stop doing it now, and go to rule 6. If no, then go to rule 5.
- Since you are apparently not burning time on the unimportant (which probably makes you a saint, since everyone wastes time), then start adding more activities into quadrant 2, even if your quadrant 1 is bursting from the seams. In the long run, you'll thank me.
- You win! Now play again.
One Last Thing
Make sure you honor the "now play again" that is part of rule #6. This is not a game you play once. It is a cheap game that you can only play one time. Great games demand you play them over and over again. So does this one.
It seems counter to purpose to treat a tool like this one as if it's a 1-off practice. How valuable is tool that would eliminate your wasted time, and let's you use our non-wasted time better?
Sure, I'd rather you play this game once than not at all. But, the real drive towards purpose comes when you start analyzing in the moment what you're doing against the 4 quadrants and then adjust to eliminate deception and waste immediately.
Just ask, "Is this actually important based on my passion, my purpose and my values?" Then ask it again. Then again...and again...until you die.
Be well,
Sterling Lynk
[Image: Zelda.com]