Choices

This post is about a life lesson I've learned while playing Magic. I'm going to start with the Magic example, then show how it relates to life in general.

I've read quite a bit about Magic strategy over the years, but one piece has stuck with me more than most. It has probably helped me improve my gameplay more than anything else. The basic idea is this: When you lose, its because of a choice you made. People have a tendency to blame anything but themselves when they lose, but the author of this particular piece explains that only by accepting responsibility for our losses can we learn from them and improve.

For example, many times I've heard Magic players say they lost because they drew bad cards. What they seldom realize is they are the ones who decided to include those card in their deck. If the person had chosen to play different cards and drawn those cards instead, the game might have gone differently.

Another example is players who complain about getting paired up against a deck that is difficult for them to beat. They will cry fowl and blame bad luck for the loss. To an extent, it is true they were unlucky. However, they could have chosen to play a different deck.

There are several other examples that the author goes though, but they are very specific to the game, so I won't go into them here. However, he makes it very clear that most of the time, the loss could probably have been avoided if the person had made a different choice at some point.

I was thinking about this piece of advice earlier this week, as I was preparing for the tournmanet I'm going to Saturday. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is true beyond Magic. Where we are in life is determined by the choices we have made up to that point.

This was really brought into focus for me as I think about this year so far. As I've mentioned in this blog, there are several things I want to accomplish this year. In order to achieve them, I need to pay attention to the choices I'm making.

If I want to write a novel this year, then I need to decide if time spent watching a show could be better spent writing or world building. If I want to get in better shape, then I need to choose to get up earlier and make sure I'm working out. I also need to choose to healthy food over junk food. If I want to get better at Magic, then I need to choose to set aside time to studying and practicing.

We are presented with choices all of the time. Its important to think about how those choices will affect our future goals. In most cases, we have no one to blame but ourselves for the choices we make.

-Eddie