Just a Quick recap on Part 2 of Stephen Covey book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – The Private Victory. This part is about preparing myself to be great, developing the right mindset, establishing goals and prioritize.
Today, I like to bring you out of the book as we have already covered in depth the 3 Habits in Private Victory:
What a game like Warcraft teach me about Private Victory
Life is similar to playing a real time strategy game such as warcraft. It is a computer-based strategy game where we have lots of controls, leading our heroes, troops, building infrastructures, training troops, researching for upgrades, managing the economy, gathering resources to be utilized, etc. to win or defend my kingdom.
In order to win, We need to think quick and act fast! I have to understand the abilities of my heroes, the functions of my buildings, the strength and weakness of my troops, managing resources, etc. all in real time as my opponents start to build his or her empire to crush me.
Here’s how these game features get translated into my life dynamics:
Objectives – The Goals
The game is divided into different scenarios and in each scenario the objective (the goal) is set for me. In life, our daily goals, big or small may be set by other people too, especially at work. However everyday we, ourselves must set out to do something for the day that is exclusively for us to move towards the life that we dream of. Else it will always remain a dream as you will not have enough momentum to push through.
Heroes
In life, we are our own hero, every decision we made in our lives led us to what we are today. The state we are in, how we feel, how we make our decision. Usually the heroes have different abilities. Likewise in our life, we need someone who we can trust, rely on, or just to complement our skill set – covering our weaker areas. We will never be the expert of everything, thus we need friends whose expertise can bring about a better life for one another.
Building
In game, every infrastructure built served a specific purpose, be it for enhancement, to train troops, build machines, to do research or even to store your resources, etc. In life, I believe that every person should run their everyday life like a company – Having a system / guidelines to facilitate and support the process of executing specific tasks in the respective areas of our life.
What system or guidelines do you have in your life to improve your the aspects in your life?
- Physical – Your body Health and Energy
- Mental – Thinking, Beliefs and Intelligence
- Emotional – Feelings and Motivation
- Spiritual – The sense of well being
- Environment – Conducive for what you want to do?
- Business or Career – Work is a large part in anyone’s life – 50 years for you?
- Relationships – Your dearest, loved ones and connection with others
I divided my aspects of life into these 7 areas. Having one on each day per week to think about and work on it. The Private Victory is about becoming a better me.
Training
Different troops fight well on different monsters. I must trained myself physically, mentally and emotionally to prepare myself for the objective I set and also to be ready to react in the best possible way, when the need arises – Getting “attacked” by life! :O
Remember: 90% of the outcome in your life is determined by your response
Upgrades
Researching to be better, more effective and more efficient – To improve, we must first learn to understand ourselves and the dynamics in the different aspect of our lives. To get to where we want, we have to know where we are. Improving can be a lifetime commitment. Tony Robbins coined it as CANI – Constant And Never-ending Improvement.
Managing Resources
What are the typical resources in our life? For me, it would be Energy and Money.
Did I missed out on time? Nope, because time is never a resource, it can’t be stored, it can’t be saved – Regardless of what you do, every second passed is a second gone. From a beggar in the street to the president of any giant corporation, everyone has only 24hrs (86,400seconds) per day – no more, no less. It is how much we possess or manage the 3 above, that greatly differs our life from one another.
For human resource, they are some who can help you for free or for mutual benefits. In this high tech age, outsourcing to developing countries where the currency is not as strong as our own is becoming a popular trend. This outsourcing method gained further popularity when it was recommended in Timothy Ferriss’s 4HR work week too. But generally, people work for money. Period.
The most readily available resources to improve would be energy. Although there is a limited amount of energy anyone (including world class athletes) can have. Chances are you are not at the peak of optimum energy level yet.
So what do you do to increase your energy and money?
Recommended Reading
Moving on to the next chapter: The Beginning of Public Victory
Previous Chapter: Habit 3 First Thing First
Remember to share with us: “What do you do to increase your energy and money?”