Lately I’ve crept my way back into gaming. Trying to catch up on my extensive backlog of incompleted titles… Among those is a game from one of my favorite RPG’s, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep.

I remember being young and rushing through these games. Not reading the dialogue, skipping through annoying randoms battles, and not taking the time to  understand the game.

To really get the hang of the game, you need to know the rules and how to use the available resources effectively to do well.

During my early years, I often found myself struggling through boss battles in RPGs (Role-Playing Games). These encounters are designed to challenge both you and the strength of your character, what we call a ‘build’. In such games, you equip or attach assets to your characters to enhance their strength, magic, defense, or grant them new abilities; these enhancements are upgrades, so to speak.

If you face these bosses without equipping your character correctly or reaching the proper level, you’ll endure a beating like never before.

In RPGs, they often provide numerous sidequests that divert you from the main storyline, aiming to develop your characters and acquire new equipment to strengthen them before tackling the more difficult aspects of the story. Personally, I used to find most side quests quite boring until I realized their purpose in certain games: an opportunity to gradually empower your character for the upcoming challenges of the main story.

I then drew parallels to our real world, which operates in a similar fashion. If you attempt to rush through life, you’ll overlook numerous opportunities for personal growth. Eventually, you’ll encounter challenges that compel you to backtrack and complete the side quests you skipped while trying to level up too quickly.

I feel that in the modern world, those side quests equate to researching and self-education—expanding one’s skill set and broadening one’s thinking.

I’ve been reading a lot lately, and I’ve noticed that it definitely has ‘leveled up’ my way of thinking.

I understand that side quests may feel like a tedious grind of fundamentals when all you want is tangible progress, but don’t skip them. When you finally confront the final boss, you’ll either feel overwhelmed and want to quit or realize the importance of going back and completing those side quests you skipped that will better prepare you for the ultimate challenge.

The final boss is your goal… The side quest is your time invested in research and self-education…