You are a salvage specialist skirting the edge of the forbidden sector. A region of space where no-one is allowed to enter. Suddenly your proximity sensor starts blaring! Something just showed up just over the border, where no one travels. And it’s something big. Should you investigate? Should you break the treaty to see what’s there?

In many ways your life is like an adventure game. Unfortunately there isn’t much preamble or lead in. You’re born and, “bam! Figure it out!” Sure there are a few years of slow activity at the beginning. But most of that time is spent figuring out the controls work and learning the interface. How do you walk? How do you talk? What’s this body for anyway?

We have a limited amount of time on this planet. In that time, we need to figure out what we’re supposed to do here. It’s sort of like the ultimate adventure game. Adventure is out there waiting for you to explore and discover.

Here are a few tips to make the game better for everyone.

Don’t spend all your time at the inn bickering with the inn keeper. Go out and explore.

Don’t spend your time worrying about how other people are playing the game. It’s their quarter, let them play their way.

Don’t worry about others complaining about how you play the game. It’s your quarter, play your way.

Don’t spend your time in fear of what might happen. Lots of things could go wrong, and probably will. But on average many things will go right. And the things that go wrong are called challenges, they give you a chance to step up and earn extra points. Yes, we still don’t know what good those points will do us, but it can be fun just to see your score go up.

Do encourage other players. Sometimes someone else will be going through a bonus round and you won’t even know it. Maybe they need that extra power boost of a hug or just a kind word to help them level up.

Do be kind to yourself. If you run into a particular puzzle that you can’t solve, maybe you need to come back to it later. Without the cheat guide it can be really hard to solve some of the puzzles on the first attempt. Allow for mistakes.

Do remember, you’re here for the experience. Enjoy the mystery.

Namaste,

Kevin

Normal. Average. Expected Behavior. Common.

These words all have a very specific meaning. Oddly depending on the context the actions they describe could be drastically different. It’s easy enough to say that “Most people are average”. Or that “The average person acts normally”. Or even “That kind of behavior is expected and common”. But in reality we tend to edit out the expected. Ignore the normal. And backseat the average. We have a tendency to ignore that which we truly expect.

Conversely our minds are like hot pink highlighters for the outliers. When we see unexpected behavior alarms start going off in our heads with bright red flashing lights. Abnormal behavior triggers our minds into contrast mode as we itemize all of the flaws, errors or outright bloopers occurring in front of our eyes.

So when we spot that abnormal outliers, behaving in uncommon and unexpected ways, we speak up. Sometimes we correct. Sometimes we reprimand. Sometimes we just yell! “That’s a red light you just ran buddy!”, “How dare you treat me like this!?!”, “Would you talk to your mother that way?!?”.

Interestingly, it is much more rare for someone to speak up in support of behavior they expect. Our minds think, that this is the normal and civilized way for people to behave. So when someone does something we would have done ourselves, or would have expected, we tend to take it for granted. We believe, that the behavior observed, is the right way to behave. By taking it for granted, you are effectively ignoring it, and potentially discouraging it from happening again.

We really do want the world to be a better place. Additionally we truly need to believe that we are behaving in a way that makes the world a better place. So why not prop up the people that we see behaving in a way that makes that dream a reality? Why not become the voice of advocacy that encourages those normal, average, expected, common people to continue to be normal, average, expected and common?

We need to seek out a model of positive reinforcement. When you see something you like, say something. Don’t expect it. Don’t take it for granted. Don’t let the moment of sanity pass unremarked. Be the voice that speaks up and says “I like the world you’re building. Thank you!”

Namaste,

Kevin