Life is the ultimate game
Imagine a game in which you only have one life and in which pain to the game avatar equals real pain in your conscious experience. Imagine this character is a literal superhero meant to fight villains, with the caveat that you are that superhero and the villains you’re fighting aren’t necessarily people but problems as such. Problems, in this game, are defined very simply: Events that cause pain. Such events might appear in the form of personal problems that you have (financial, physical, social, etc.) or they might appear in the form of problems that other people have. Other people’s problems might interest you because solving them would bring you some kind of benefit (money for example), or because of empathy and a sense of unity with others. Whatever these problems might be, they are essentially the villains in this game.
If you think about villains in movies, they are often not even that evil. Sometimes they are, but often they are presented as forces of balance in nature (think Galactus or Thanos), and sometimes they are the consequence of an accident (think Green Goblin or Dr Octavius). Villains are basically personified problems. A proper hero sees that. He doesn’t seek to eliminate the villain but to solve the problem that the villain causes, which, of course, can mean that the villain must be killed though.
So, the reason we enjoy movies, shows, and video games is that they are a mythological image of human life. You have villains (problems) and need to go on missions (create solutions), and in order to do that successfully, you need the proper resources and skills. Completing a mission may not always defeat the villain, but it always offers an update on your resource- and skill-tree.
Your resources are your money, time, network, credentials, physical/digital assets that you own, and health. Your skills are your raw problem-solving capabilities; your proficiency in science, math, engineering, philosophy, communication, business, psychology, sales, and whatever else you might think of as a skill. These two things - your resources and skills - determine which missions you can complete. If you had a brutally detailed database of your villains (and their exact characteristics), resources, and skills, you could even assign probabilities of success to your missions. You could clarify exactly which resources or skills you still need so that you don’t waste your time playing a game you are destined to fail. You might also realize how many problems are easily solvable and how you’ve just been afraid to create a solution until now.
If you actually do this (listing out your problems and seeing them as villains that can be defeated through certain missions), you will notice 3 interesting things.
Your problems are very interconnected. You will see how solving one problem might enable you to easily solve two additional problems in your list. This will allow you to differentiate between problems and symptoms. It will make your list more concise and your mind more focused.
Arranging the problems in your list based on their severity (with the most severe problem at the top and the least severe problem at the bottom) will show you what your priority should be. You will have low-level problems that you can focus on when you simply want to gain momentum (when you don’t feel that motivated and need a small win), and you will have your literal biggest problems in life waiting there for you to be solved.
Finally, you will notice how life is an infinite game, meaning problems don’t stop emerging. You will probably never be able to have a list without any problems. New problems constantly emerge. Such is the nature of human life.
This last point makes me think of something very important. This game isn’t only about defeating villains. It’s also about having fun while defeating them, celebrating your wins properly, and consciously enjoying the fruits of solving problems. By “consciously”, I mean focusing your mind on the positive outcomes in your life from time to time, as a kind of happiness practice. I never really tried it, but I’m sure gratitude journaling can be very effective for this.
I want to close with an important mechanism that needs to be understood. As I said, problems are events that cause pain. Pain is not only something we’d rather not experience, but it’s also a prison for consciousness. When you are in pain, your consciousness is trapped in that pain. This obviously happens so that you eliminate the event that’s causing the pain (solve the problem), but even though this imprisonment of consciousness is useful, it is nevertheless not optimal. If problems cause pain and pain traps consciousness in a low state, then solving problems logically enables pleasure and a free consciousness. And when your consciousness isn’t attached to any given event, something truly magical can happen.