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Repetition is the father of learning. I’ve heard lil Wayne say that in a song before, as well as many other widely successful performers, athletes, actors, etc.
Doing something repeatedly to the point where the action is second nature. But how to you apply consistent, strong-willed, repetition to a specific craft, or study in order to be successful?
In Skyrim depending on your gameplay style, the character you develop adapts and increases in skill in the specific actions you do, wanna be a thief? Well then you better get stealing and you better do it alot. Constant frustration in the breaking of lock picks is required to become an expert in lock-picking as well as constant repeated use of the bow to master the skill of archery.
Eventually you become a all-powerful, thief, mage, warrior 0r assassin through an investment of numerous hours of gameplay into Skyrim.
But.
How is this all that different from success in real life? In my opinion there isn’t.
When we were all born we all started out with a zero skill set in every craft, there’s no baby in the world that can simply pop out the womb doing calculus, knowing how to play basketball, or be a firefighter, if there is a baby that can trust me I would have seen it on youtube.
Through our different experiences in our progressive transformation from baby to child to teen to adult, we eventually make a choice (or in most cases inevitably forced by society) to pickup and master a specific skill to earn money and survive. Sometimes the skill learned is influence by socioeconomic status, family, hardships, or environment, we may master a skill to impress somebody or to quite simply eat for the night.
But with all the different influences put aside and we as humans are given a chance to master a specific skill of OUR choice, how to we ensure that we will be successful?
Do you want to dance, be a singer, be a motivational speaker, astronaut, football player, or just learn how to use the the computer better?
They say Lebron James training regiment is pretty brutal, practicing six hours six days a week. Most people don’t even practice the skill in their actual jobs that much, street fighter champion Daigo Umehara practices at the arcade 364 days out of the entire year, and the only reason why he doesn’t practice for that 1 last day is because his
family wants him home for new years!
Good God. That is dedication.
Now let’s put it in Skyrim gameplay terms if there was a basketball skill Lebron would have probably been a master basketball player probably with a 500 rating in basketball because he repeats the action soooooooo much, he probably has a rating of 12 in ironing clothes though, but through repetition he could be beast at that too.
Can you really be a beast at ironing clothes? hmmm nevermind….
Now look at your professor the only reason why he/she is “smart or intelligent” in the field of study is because that professor has pretty much dedicated their life to the study of that skill, they are constantly doing, researching, thinking, and conversing about that skill, they eat and breathe that skill, so its strongly likely that the professor has mastered it.
In today’s society the process of repetition of a skill is hindered, I say this because the society we live in today is so riddled with constant lucrative distractions that one cannot possibly consistently, successfully master a tedious skill that could take years to master.
Think of the things you are good at:
Checking facebook statuses Skill: 95
Memorizing your favorite channels Skill :200
Knowing the latest gossip about people Skill: 100
Master the skills required to get a promotion, degree or certification Skill: 33
Facebook, Jersey Shore, MTV, any reality show, video games, netflix, tivo, tumblr, foursquare, and angry birds; all these things have effectively hindered or have successfully stopped the progressing of our skill sets, people then tend to think that if they fail at learning something its because they’re stupid when that is not the case, if you can sit down and check Facebook status updates and constantly repeat the same action over and over for about 4 hours everyday until you memorize the action without fail….
Why can’t you spend the same amount of time to master a skill that actually can benefit you?
Always remember the only difference between you and a successful person is that they went through all of the different hardships, distractions, and obstacles along the way.
But never made an excuse, they stuck to it and repeated the skill until they where successful at it.
Now maybe it’s time you forgot how to use facebook and learned how to be the best person you can be in any skill you want.
peace out y’all.
Okay before I start I must admit the only reason why I’m not playing Skyrim right now is because I my roommate is and even he’s lost his social life and obligations to the excellent Rpg title from Bethesda.
For the rest of the world who actually have lives and can’t avoid to lose their lives to an amazing time consuming virtual world, Skyrim is a the 5th installment in The Elder Scrolls series, a role playing game series known for its widely expansive sandbox do anything you want gameplay, amazing leveling system and the list goes on.
I would like to believe that I’m a giant video gamehead, and like to enjoy a variety of different game genres with equal prejudice, I play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, love ANY Super mario brothers game, can play madden, have a innate rival like competitive streak for Street Fighter, and love any kind of adventure game, oh yeah addictive towers and defense games like plants vs zombies and ultimate time wasters like angry birds get the job done too.
But.
The Elder Scrolls has ALWAYS been my favorite game and probably will be of my entire existence.
It all started in high school, I had an Xbox 360 and I was playing a bunch of different games because the Xbox had finally started to hit its stride and produce quality titles, and while I was busy blasting my opponents to chef boyardee bits in gears of war with my shotgun, I was happy but I knew their had to be one game out there that would satisfy my video game soul.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was that Chicken noodle soup.
The next day in school me and friends proceeded to brag and boast in caveman fashion how we bested in each other in a variety of different grotesque executions in gears of war, when I overheard one of my friends talking about some game where you can basically do anything you want in this fantasy world, join all these different guilds and define your own gameplay style.
At first I was pretty skeptical, initially because I felt that fantasy worlds with elves, orcs, mages, knights, and dragons where quite frankly for geeks. There has been numerous situations where I walked into the library and caught people hunched up in the corner of the room, with a small mountain of energy drinks, violently clicking away at the mouse playing runescape.
And when your on the outside looking in at nerds like their some type of crazy possessed heretic, you inevitably always say in the back of you head…
“That would never happen to me”
Boy was I soooooo wrong.
I was finally convinced by my friend to give the game a try (I swear it was like the equivalent of trying out cocaine), because I heard you could create an assassin/thief like character, so after I was sold on giving a game a chance my journey begun.
Now I must admit I know when I have a problem and I will tell you first if I have one, but when I say this game consumed most of my time it consumed had seconds, thirds and anything left of my social life, the elder scrolls has a unique leveling system where if you perform a simple action repeatedly your level for that repeated action will increase, so basically if you wanna get good at pick-pocketing, you pick-pocket repeatedly until you become a master at it, simple.
Very simple concept. immensely addicting gameplay.
It came to the point where the only thing that separated me from those creepy nerd possessed heretics in the library was that I would go home and play my addiction in secret, the nerds in the library weren’t afraid to show it and embraced it so basically I was more of a wimp then the nerds.
Eventually I played the game from Senior year of high school on and off until senior year of college (now) and have logged in a total of 320 + hours of gameplay, and I finally beat the damn game so now my life (soul) is at peace or released from my obligation to The Elder Scrolls.
Right……RIGHT?
Actually no because the sequel(Skyrim) just came out and is 5 times better than one I just conquered, the game came out Friday and I have already logged in a total of
55 hours… yes and it feels soooo good.
But even though I am a black 22 yr old man who loves hip-hop, computers, and fashion, I can safely admit with complete social freedom say in public that
I graduated from the college of winterhold became the head Arch-Mage, just learn the spell wall of storms and am now a expert in alteration magic.
Now who’s on the outside looking in? ha
P.S. I have successfully converted my roommate, he has 45 hours logged in and there is no sign of him turning back…lol
