6 Life Lessons I Learned from Zelda

(Article reposted from The Doppelganger Trilogy Facebook page).

People wonder why I'm so addicted to Zelda. It's just a video game, right? There are more important things in life.

There are a lot of reasons, but what it boils down to for me is that in the hardest time of my life, when everything I loved had been taken from me, my best friend at the time introduced me to Zelda. Zelda taught me some of the most important lessons of my life. These lessons still inspire me and guide me today:

1. Destiny often begins with tragedy. I can't control when tragedy happens. What I can control is how I rise to meet it: will I turn away from the call of destiny and go back to sleep, or will I look inside myself to find the courage to step up and battle my demons? The choice is mine alone, and it will determine the course of my destiny.

2. Discipline and endurance are the only ways to achieve my goals. I’m never going to beat the dungeon if I dilly dally outside catching cuckoos and playing mini-games. I need to set goals, and then I need the discipline to stop playing games and get to work. Once I get to work, I also need enough endurance to get to the end.

3. If I fail, and I will, take up a new sword and try again. Failing isn’t just about getting up and doing the same thing I did before. Failing is about examining myself and my goals and what it will take to achieve them. Sometimes I need to set aside my old sword and get a new one to meet my goals and achieve my destiny.

4. Sacrifice is sometimes necessary: I’m going to miss out on stuff when I’m goal-focused. There are hang outs I can’t go to, people I can’t get to know better, and stretches of life others experience that I miss out on because I’m working. That’s okay. Some day when I’m done I can do those things, but for now destiny demands that I make sacrifices. They’ll be worth it when I stand on the field of victory with my whole life before me full of possibility.

5. Never forget to have a little fun: Amid all of this, balance is still important. Never forget to have some fun. Go fishing, play a game, pray, love, build myself up. I’ll never get to the end if I burn out my heart and exhaust my soul.

6. Believe in my strengths: The only way to have the courage and strength to get to the end of a struggle, to achieve my destiny, is to believe in myself. If I don’t believe I can do it, I won’t get up and try again (see #3). I’ll never be successful and I’ll spend my life setting goals, making promises, and dreaming dreams that I’ll never achieve. I need to believe in my strengths to have the courage to do the scary thing, the important thing, and go after my destiny.

What life lessons has the Zelda series taught you? Sound off in the comments, and subscribe to get notified when a new Field Note goes up here on HFN! Thanks for reading.