TLQ: The First Questgiver

I met with my life coach on the 24 June, 2014.  I must say, I’ve never had a conversation like that before, with a relative stranger to boot.  Talking about my Hunters game concept, where I want to go with it, where I want to go with my career – I could have yabbered on all night.  And I don’t consider myself a talker (more of a listener).  She was really great, listening to me like that.  And understanding!  Oh my goodness.  Being told that she could see the passion I had for Hunters.  I could have almost cried with relief.

But enough of the mushy stuff.  We were there to get the ball rolling, to get the cogs of my fate grinding!  Yes!  She is my first questgiver.  That NPC that stands in the starter zone just waiting for a new level 1 to walk up and accept their small task.  Hrm… maybe that’s not the right analogy.  Perhaps she will be like a summonable NPC that follows me around on my quest.  Sometimes I can just talk to her, discussing kicking-butt moments and those forgettable moments of auto-running off a cliff.  Sometimes it’ll be “Go slay a number of tasks”.  Other times she may burst out into a cheerleading routine with my name on the streamers of the bon-bons.

First, we talked about what my most immediate goals were.  And then what my “ultimate” goals were.

Here’s what I wrote in my lovely new book specifically for this:

The “I want a job” goal was added as a separate goal after the initial list was written, hence why it’s goal #0.5.

When these were penned down, she asked me about other goals I might have that were not career-based.  I’ll have to admit I stared at her with a very blank expression as my answer.  My life revolves around these concepts to the point I’d say it’s become an obsession.  To answer her, I had to think.  What did I want out of my life other than my concepts?  Well… I want my depressive episodes to be less all-consuming, and that it wouldn’t take a whole month to recover from a bad one.  I also want to be comfortable – to afford things I want to buy (not going crazy like Ferraris. More like plushies or Persona merchandise) and not fret continually about money matters.  And I want to play sport again, team sport specifically.

So after discussing some paraphrasing, here’s what I wrote:

There.  The first list of goals done.  Writing them down, and giving them a timeline, makes them a goal, as opposed to a dream.  It’s also a goal I’ve written down in front of the person who’s going to hold me accountable and cheer me on.

All of this work and discussion rounded itself into the quest she bequeathed me.  When I meet her next (8^th July), I am to have broken down each goal into a task list and show her my progress.  That was when my project manager side kicked in. My mind went a-whirling with all the memories of my year-long project at university, accessing all the information I had about planning out projects.  Now I just hope that I won’t over-complicate this seemingly simple task.

Quest: Break down each goal into a task list and show progress.

Next step: Review project management information to aid this process and then begin.

Tagged: dreams game design game development gamer Games gaming goals life morale motivation productivity project