I apologize for my sideburns and striped shirt

For nan first clip successful 10+ years, I rewatched my 2012 TEDx talk:

“​Nerd Fitness and Resetting nan Game of Life.​”

My first thought: “Whoa, Steve. Those are immoderate EPIC sideburns.”

My adjacent thought: “Bold prime pinch nan striped shirt, jeans, and flip flops!”

Then I gave myself immoderate grace.

I’m profoundly uncomfortable pinch nan spotlight. I dislike nationalist speaking. It makes maine want to vomit each azygous time. I besides don’t for illustration being connected camera.

And yet, I person ideas that I deliberation tin thief people.

So I constitute and stock my ideas. And sometimes, I unit myself to get connected stage. For this talk, I had to return 2 buses done nan jungles of Ecuador (where I was surviving astatine nan time), and past return 2 flights to get to Atlanta.

I stayed astatine my friend Kappy’s house, and nan nighttime earlier nan talk, I decided to enactment up and rewrite nan full damn thing. That morning, I practiced my talk to his 2 dogs, and past hurried complete to Emory and conscionable went afloat YOLO and shouted my talk into nan universe.

12 years later, rewatching this talk, I person thoughts.

If you want to return a travel down representation lane, you can ​watch nan talk connected YouTube​, which amazingly has complete 100,000 views.

My Biggest Surprise Rewatching…

It wasn’t arsenic embarrassing arsenic I thought!

Baby Steve really had immoderate decent ideas and was an okay storyteller! Especially erstwhile you see I had rewritten nan full talk 12 hours anterior and was connected zero hours of sleep. Oh, to beryllium young and naive again.

This is nan descent that cracked maine up nan most, and I deliberation nan 1 I want to walk nan astir magnitude of clip on:

Throughout astir of my early 20s, I spent an unhealthy magnitude of clip playing video games. At nan time, I had convinced myself that nan video games were nan problem. They had go excessively addicting, excessively enjoyable, and they were nan logic I wasn’t making overmuch advancement successful my existent life.

The reality is 1 level deeper. It wasn’t conscionable nan video games. It was that I didn’t person overmuch life to look guardant to. I didn’t for illustration my occupation (selling building equipment), I didn’t person goals aliases things successful my individual life to look guardant to. So I escaped into video games.

Older and wiser and pinch shorter sideburns, I person a amended knowing of quality behaviour and my ain individual struggles pinch procrastination and escape.

As laid retired successful my friend Nir Eyal’s book ​Indistractable​, if we don’t reside nan guidelines origin of distraction aliases escape, our brains will get very bully astatine uncovering yet different point to get hooked on!

In different words, if you tin spell 1 level deeper arsenic to WHY you’re procrastinating aliases avoiding reality (possibly pinch the ​help of therapy​) it tin thief you get retired of nan rut.

Once I recovered thing to look guardant to (for maine it was turning life into an escapade video crippled for illustration Zelda and EverQuest), abruptly video games became a acold little appealing usage of my constricted free time.

These days, I still play video games regularly (I conscionable vanished Fallout 4), but I now cognize more.

When video games return complete excessively overmuch of my life, it’s probably because I’m avoiding confronting nan reality of a problem successful life.

Maybe I’m frightened to get backmost to activity connected my secret-book-shaped project, because I interest it’s not bully enough. Or possibly I’m avoiding an uncomfortable speech aliases addressing a existent problem successful my life.

So, nan solution isn’t unplugging nan Playstation. It’s addressing nan problem I’m really moving difficult to avoid.

It’s amended to cognize why I’m procrastinating alternatively of conscionable blaming it connected video games.

How’s My Epic Quest Going?

In my talk, I talk astir my Bucket List, which I renamed my Epic Quest of Awesome. For a bully 8 years, this was a large attraction of mine.

Literally earning acquisition points for accomplishing quests successful existent life.

I did this after ​exercising astir nan world​ and living ​14 months of escapade travel​.

I moreover sewage a book published astir turning life into a game, Level Up Your Life, back successful 2016. I precocious reacquired nan authorities to this book, and I’m hoping to put retired a Version 2 successful nan coming year.

(This is why you can’t bargain it now, sorry astir that!).

12 years later, life is simply a spot different.

If you’ve been reference this newsletter for nan past year, you mightiness person noticed a theme: ​acceptance and self-compassion​.

I’ve changed my position connected goals.

I had tally myself ragged for complete a decade, building Nerd Fitness, giving arsenic overmuch arsenic possible, chasing nan adjacent goal. Each extremity led to nan adjacent goal. Each dragon slain required maine to spell find different dragon.

It became an endless loop of perpetual “more much more.”

And yet I realized that I had gotten beautiful acold distant from what really made maine happy.

These past fewer years, I’ve decided to unrecorded a spot differently.

Instead of large agelong word goals pinch dramatically organized plans, I’ve narrowed my attraction to: “How tin I person a bully time today?”

I unrecorded arsenic if ​I will NEVER “get there.”​

I still person goals, and I still person things I dream to execute successful life.

I’m conscionable playing a different crippled than I was astatine 28. I deliberation this “life is simply a game” accuracy served maine good astatine nan time, and I deliberation now I person added a fewer other doses of reality to really this plays out.

For personification stuck successful a rut, and escaping excessively overmuch into virtual worlds, I deliberation reasoning astir life for illustration a video crippled tin beryllium a beautiful nosy measurement to effort and break retired of that rut.

It mightiness not activity for everybody, but I deliberation having things to look guardant to, and goals to activity on, and past uncovering ways to make mini bits of advancement tin help.

I screen this successful an article called “​A Nerd’s Guide to Success and Happiness​” which still holds up!

A small spot of nuance and position tin spell a agelong measurement erstwhile gamifying life!

Wading into nan Comment Section…

I made nan perilous prime to wade into nan cesspool of nan internet:

The remark conception connected my video.

I was shocked to spot that 95% of nan comments were ace positive!

There was one remark though, that provided maine a unsocial opportunity to do thing I’ve ever wanted to do.

Prove personification incorrect connected nan internet.

In my talk, I mentioned that I hoped to 1 time deadlift 400+ pounds. I grew up scrawny and weak, and I later learned that I person spondylolisthesis, which intends 2 of my vertebrae don’t statement up.

For nan past 15 years, deadlifting has been my favourite exercise. It’s nan activity that has made maine consciousness nan astir beardown and empowered.

I went and recovered a ​video of myself from 2018​, wherever aft 6+ years of dedicated, slow maturation and attraction connected getting stronger, I deadlifted 420 pounds astatine a bodyweight of 172 lbs. No belt, straps, and double overhand grip too!

And yes. 12 years later, I HAD to reply and fto nan feline cognize I did it.

Not gonna lie, it felt bully proving a random net commenter wrong! Hahahaha

Petty and unnecessary? Yep!

Satisfying? Very.

Two Buttons: Power and Reset

I vanished my talk pinch thing that was acold much powerful than I had expected.

The original Nintendo Entertainment System has 2 buttons: POWER and RESET.

In nan crippled of life, we get to deed nan powerfulness fastener once. It turns connected erstwhile we’re born, and it turns disconnected erstwhile we die.

But we besides person an opportunity to deed nan RESET Button. If there’s a thought aliases personality you person that’s nary longer serving you, aliases immoderate facet of life that conscionable isn’t working…it’s okay to deed nan reset button.

It’s okay to effort again, moreover if you grounded nan past time.

Remember, ​our knowledge carries over​, and we ne'er commencement backmost astatine quadrate one.

Game on, my chap nerd!

-Steve

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