If you don’t play video games that much, RPG stands for Role Playing Game.

RPG games work as follows. At the start of the game you choose for youself a basic character with some basic skills and abilities. Most RPG games are fantasy based, so you’d get something like an Elf, that has a greater initial speed, agility and is good with bow and arrows, a dwarf which is strong and is good with axes, humans that are sort of in between, or whatever the case may be.

You then proceed on your adventure through the game’s virtual world accepting challenges and helping people while earning money to buy your character equipment and keep him alive, and at the same time getting experience from the challenges he/she faces improving the their abilities.

These improved abilities through experience and increased money then enable you to accomplish ever more difficult and lucrative challenges.

Isn’t this the primary basis for real life personal development?

One cannot go from never exercising and being unfit to rigorously exercising everyday to accomplish the expert personal fitness straight away. We need to take it step by step. Build your skills and abilities up from the beginner level you currently are to the expert level you want to be at.

If you’ve ever played the game The Sims you’ll know what I mean.

So lets try this, pretend you are an RPG character and you start your game in Life. You have some basic starting abilities and skills, and you can follow a map of different skills you can acquire and what is required for you to achieve them and what you will be able to do once you’ve achieved them.

You may want to take examples and inspiration from The Sims as it is most resembles real life that the rest of the fantasy RPG games out there.You can give yourself rewards for reaching the next skill level in each category and penalize yourself for going down skill level. Make it fun.

I’m going to write down my RPG character and game rule, and I’d like you to try the same and share it with us.

I read a deep and insightful post today from Life 2.0 called Perspectives on Psychotherapy, which I recommend you all read. One quote they mentioned that struck a chord with me.

From a lecture by Wolter Keers in Gent (sent to me by Ray Sender) -

I had a meeting yesterday evening with a group of psychiatrists and psychologists. There I defended the proposition that there is only one psychic obstacle and that you can reduce all of psychology and psychotherapy, and all psychiatry to that one obstacle. That one problem is that we have forgotten that we are love.

…

Love cannot be given to anyone, you cannot get love; you can’t make water wet, because water is wetness. Neither can anyone give you love, no one can receive love from you, you can only recognize love in yourself and you can recognize love in others.

There’s more, but head on over to the original post to check out the rest.