Virtual Vision

I’ve done silly, frivolous goals, and a couple of SERIOUS goals. Here’s one that appears very ridiculous, but it could be a real difference maker for me. As a highly analytical person and someone who has difficulty selling herself, I may end up in a role that is very serious and detailed with numbers. What I’ve learned in the past is that such roles only fill me halfway. I must have creative outlets to maintain my own self. So, in case of this result, I must get myself back into creative hobbies and I’ll start with my Sims.

When SimCity launched in 1991, I was playing it. I’ve always liked video games but growing up in the 80s, this wasn’t really a hobby that a lot of girls pursued and the game makers were interested in where the money and audience lived so BOYS. I know I played a few in college and they weren’t all like that, but SimCity was the first one I got obsessed with playing (except Tetris – so you see that I truly am a nerd). I played this game until Maxis announced an idea that just thrilled me: those little Sims would become entities that I could play. I bought The Sims in 2000 just as I was preparing for Hallie to be born. And, I’ve bought into the new versions as they’ve upgraded. I have to admit that Sims 3 is my favorite, but it takes up so much memory on the computer I’ve transitioned to Sims 4. I still have SimCity and several other related games, but the Sims is my favorite.

Over the years, I’ve played lots of variations. I’ve done challenges from different life choices to generational challenges to career challenges. I’ve created versions of favorite movies and tv shows and tried to see how they might co-exist. I’ve even refused to let my Sims marry anyone who isn’t an NPC to make things harder. There’s probably even some mental health findings beyond extreme competitive nature I could discover if I wanted to study my favorite aspects of the game over the years – yeah, I did a challenge where I intentionally killed my Sims in all the different ways to get all the different color ghosts. But you’ll find that you get bored with the game if you don’t mix up how you play. My most recent approach was to create and populate an entire community and see how an average family I picked would exist in that community – who they’d be drawn to and whether they’d prefer the NPCs over the neighbors. The issue is that this was taking so long and I didn’t feel inspired with the game so I stopped playing. THAT will change.

So I set a goal: S – Specific. I will play Sims 4 at least 2 hours per week, focusing on game play not Sim creation or home creation. M – Measurable. Well, like I said at least 2 hour per week. A – Achievable. I’ve done many more hours in a week and I have a ton more hours available, but I can’t get so obsessed other aspects of my life suffer. R – Relevant. This is relevant ONLY because I need this creative outlet and this is the easiest one. T – Timely. I will restart by the 20th. Why the 20th? I have other stuff that has to be done this week so I don’t want to get distracted from those obligations, plus I don’t think I want to go back to playing the game that bored me so I need to come up with a new approach. That’s what I’ll do in the meantime. Maybe I should make me and live the life I aspire to achieve? Virtual Vision?