Life is a game, and here is how you win!

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About a year ago, we got the Nintendo Switch and I’ve been obsessed! And not with Just Dance, Definitely not with Mario Cart…but actually with Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing is a cute sims game and offers the most relaxing and chill game environment ever. If you look up this game on reddit, you’ll read things like “relaxing”, “de-stressing” or “cozy-gaming”.

So after many months of playing this sims game it’s become apparent to me that video games are like life. And what an interesting concept (read: philosophy) to consider. Because if games can be won, that means life can be won to!

Now you don’t have to be a gamer, but this should resonate with everyone… Below I’m sharing 5 tips on how to win in the game of life!

Tip # 1: You can choose your avatar

Before you start any game, you get to select who you want to be, what you want to look like, where they live, what tools they have and how they will represent you in the game. Life is no different. Every day you wake up, you can create your avatar. You can choose how you want to dress (so you align with your goals, convey a message and be your ideal self), what you’ll do (your goals, aspirations similar to the “dailies” in a sims game) and how you’ll speak or behave (so you can express yourself in a confident, happy or way that radiates the energy you want to portray). All of this is to say, you have complete control over yourself and how you show up. You can decide one day you want to change things up, go after new goals or refocus/re-heal for your own betterment.

Game of Life - Pic your avatar_Pinterest
via Pinterest

Tip # 2: The rules can change at any time

Just like a video game, life has it own experiences, norms and goals. Characters can build habits and patterns. But things can change at any time (whether thats the game or your character). In video games, we’ve seen a new character appear, a new challenge can present itself or you can lose the round. But once the game restarts, you are back up to where you left off. The same is true for life. Our brains have the ability to create new neural networks based on our choices to learn and improve. If yesterday didn’t go as planned, you still have the knowledge and experience to do better today. When a new day starts, it’s an opportunity to step outside of your comfort zone. Which in a way is “unlocking” a new level of you (or your character *wink*). You get to make better decisions, try new routines and approaches to win the round, achieve your goals and magnetize the reality you want.

Game of Life - Your own rules_Pinterest
via Pinterest

Tip # 3: Choose your own adventure

In a game, we seek new challenges, experiences and quests. Life should be the same. We should dedicate our real life to the pursuit of goals, creating new value and levelling up. Don’t get me wrong – we do not need to make major changes overnight, but small incremental upgrades or tweeks to how live our life (ie play the game) can make big changes in the long run. All this to say that we can reinvent who we are and what we want to do at anytime. And the stories that we told ourselves yesterday do not have to guide who we are tomorrow.

Game of Life - Choose your adventure_Pinterest
via Pinterest

Tip # 4: Every moment is one to watch?

As a gamer you are the creator and the consumer of your avatars life. It’s is joyful to experience but also interesting to see. Life should be the same. Every moment should be magical and romanticized so you realize you “get to do all these things” instead of “have to”. In some video games you can take screenshots or even avatar perspective photos. The same should be happening in your real life. Capture and document everything. Whether it’s a time lapse of you working, a collage of you on vacation or a quick shot of your fav morning beverage – why not make it a moment to remember!

Game of Life - Document everything_Pinterest
via Pinterest

Tip #5: You have to be present

In our current world, multi tasking has become the norm. Cooking dinner while watching a show. Going for a run while listening to a podcast. Eating while reading a good. And for sure some habit stacking routines are beneficial, but there needs to be a case for being present. In a video game, you cannot use both your hands on a joy-con/joy-stick and text your friend. You cannot pay attention to your next move in the game while doing your nails. And you most definitely wouldn’t play a game if you were driving. Your thoughts have to be focused on the task at hand, whether that’s jumping to avoid an obstacle or smashing bricks to destroy a villian. Even more so, in life staying in the present by focusing your thoughts on the current moment is key to creating your reality. By staying in the present moment and focusing on the now (instead of the past or future) we are essentially being observers in our own reality (think: the wave / particle experience, yourself being the observer). We have the opportunity to shape outcome and create our destiny just by being fully present.

Game of Life - Be Present_Pinterest
via Pinterest

Evening Skincare Cocktail

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Creating a skin care routine is the best thing I’ve done for my skin and my self care routine. After a few months of experimentation I’ve been able to find a combination of vitamins (in the form of serums) to help my skin restore, replenish and rejuvenate over night.
…Enter my evening skin care cocktail ;)

I like to switch up the products to address different aspects of skincare. Doing this is actually called “skin cycling”

Multi Peptides + Copper, Hyaluronic acid, Multi Peptide Lash/Brow Serum, Creamy Eye Treatment, Water Cream

Beauty Elixar, Nacinamide, Retinol, Ultra Hydrating Night Mask or Dewy Skin Cream

Nacinamide, Hyaluronic Acid, Caffeine Solution (eyes), Eye Repair cream, Hyaluronic Moisture Cream

I like to use both mid level and drug store products. But finding what works did take some trial and trial. ;)
Adopting a skin care routine is a personal practice. What I love about my routine is that it isn’t a 20 step routine. Some days can be a little more elaborate, but I always have this 5 minute routine for my every day!

8 course menu in a Cave!

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I’m not a foodie, but I know trying new restaurants with friends is a love language.

The three core pillars of a restaurant experience are: ambiance, service, food (aesthetics high up on priority).

I’m also someone who will go to a new restaurant, not for the food – as a priority, but for the vibes. I love seeing and surrounding myself with beautiful things. So of course, gorgeous restaurants and how the chef’s make art on a plate are no exception.

My friend and I recently checked out And / Ore and it was spectacular. We specifically went to the Below Ground dining room.

And / Ore did not disappoint. From the moment we entered we were treated with a friendly smile, courteous service and beautiful things to look at everywhere.

The Below Ground dinning room offered an 8 course tasting menu. I had seen pictures of the plates online and thought I’d have to grab a pizza afterwards (lol). But little did I know that 8 little plates would really add up!

The presentation of the food (and the taste of most dishes) were amazing. And just check out the view of the inside, it’s like you are in an actual cave!

If you haven’t been then I highly recommend it. The menu is seasonal and uses local ingredients so I plan on going again with the Hubz.

Would love to hear of any new restaurant experiences in Toronto – do share in the comments!

Love & Light
B

Think Again by Adam Grant (my favourite ideas from the book)

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I recently read Think Again by Adam Grant, and I annotated a lot. Here are the annotations. Hopefully they spark some interest in you to think again (or at least read the book!)

  • When people reflect on what it takes to be mentally fit, the first idea that comes to mind is usually intelligence. The smarter you are, the more complex problems you can solve – the faster you can solve them….yet in a turbulent world, there’s another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink & unlearn
  • When it comes to our own knowledge and opinions, we often favour feeling right over being rights
  • When we think and talk, we often slip into the mindsets of three different professions: preachers, prosecutors and politicians…We go into preacher mode when our sacred beliefs are in jeopardy: we deliver sermons to protect and promote our ideas. We enter prosecutor when we recognized flaws in other peoples’s reasoning: we marshal arguments to prove them wrong and win our case. We shift into politician mode when we’re seeking to win over an audience: we campaign and lobby for approval of our constituents.
  • In psychology there are at least 2 biases that drive [our thinking]: Confirmation bias – see what we expect to see [and] the other is desirability bias: seeing what we want to see.
  • What set apart great presidents was their intellectual curiosity and openness.
  • Research shows that when people are resistant to change, it helps to reinforce what will stay the same. Visions for change are more compelling when they include visions of continuity. Although our strategy might evolve, our identity will endure.
  • In theory, confidence and competence go hand in hand. In practice, they often diverge.
  • The Dunning-Kruger effect – when we lack competence that we are most likely brimming with over-confidence
  • Advancing from notice to amateur can break the rethinking cycle. As we gain experience, we lose some of our humility.
  • Confidence Sweet Spot = Confident Humility
  • Attachment. That’s what keeps us from recognizing when our opinions are off the mark and rethinking them. To unlock the joy of being wrong, we need to detach.
  • If you want to be a better forecaster today, you need to let go of your commitments of the opinions you held yesterday.
  • Productive disagreement is a lifeskill none of us fully develop. Research shows that how often parents argue has no bearing on their children’s academic, social or emotional development.
  • In good fights are the tension is intellectual not emotional
  • Skilled negotiators: find common ground > ask questions > provide a # of reasons > defend attacks
  • After establishing the drawbacks of her case, she emphasized a few reasons to hire her anyway: But what I do have are skills that can't be taught. I take ownership of projects far beyond my pay grade and what is defined in my scope of responsibilities. I don't wait for people to tell me what do and seek for myself what needs to be done. I invest myself deeply in my projects and it shows in everything I do, from my projects at work to the projects I do in my own time. I'm entrepreneurial. I get things done. I love breaking new ground and starting with a blank slate.
  • As a general rule: its those with greater power that need to do more of the rethinking.
  • When we try to convince people to think again, our first instinct is usually to start talking. Yet the most effective way to help others open their minds is often to listen.
  • Inverse Charisma (the magnetic qualities of a great listener): a sense of being listened to with such intensity that you had to be your most honest, sharpest and best self.
  • As consumers of information, we have a role to play. When reading, listening or watching, we can learn to recognize complexity as a signal of credibility. We can favour content and sources that present many sides of an issue, rather than just one or two. When we come across simplifying headlines, we can fight out tendency to accept binaries by asking what additional perspectives are missing between these extremes.
  • In productive conversations, people treat feelings as a rough draft. Like art, emotions are works in progress. As we gain perspective, we revise what we feel.
  • We need to encourage students to question themselves and one another.
  • Lectures are entertaining and informative, the question is whether they are the ideal method of teaching. […] they actually gained more knowledge and skill from active learning sessions (sending students off to find answers instead of the teacher showing the students how to arrive at the answer). It required deeper mental effort, which made it less fun but led to deeper understanding.
  • Perfectionists are more likely than their peers to ace school, they don’t perform any better than their colleagues at work.
  • Respond to confusion with curiosity and interest aka “give time to your confusion”
  • Encourage children to do multiple drafts of the same drawing.
  • Psychological safety is the foundation of a learning culture
  • Best practices in corporate imply that we’ve stopped learning, […] instead we should looking for “better practices”
  • When psychological safety exists without accountability, people operate within their comfort zone.
  • Change the ownership of psychological safety. (ex: if she says that it’s not safe to launch, the team should prove that it is safe to launch)
  • Sometimes the best type of grit, is gritting your teeth and turning around.
  • It’s easy to be a scientist: it’s simply the act of experimenting

Prep for 2025 with me!

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I love a new year because I love a fresh start. But a fresh start can happen any time. It can happen on a clear weekend, or a Monday morning. It can happen happen on a Friday afternoon, when school starts, or the new financial fiscal and the start of a new month. But a fresh start and some inspiration go a long way. Sharing some ways to prepare for the new year, following the 4Ms method: Mind, Money, Mouth & Mood

:: Mind ::

  • Continuous Learning
  • Regular Journalling
  • Make time for Creativity
  • Practice Mindfulness
  • Digital Detox

:: Money ::

  • Create a monthly Budget
  • Have a No-Spend day
  • Track your spending
  • Build your Savings
  • Create an investment account

:: Mouth ::

  • Reach for veggies & fruits first
  • Drink 3L of water
  • Eat enough protein
  • Limit Sugar
  • Track your food (calories or macros)

:: Mood ::

  • Be Grateful
  • Take Nature Walks
  • Practice Breathing Exercises
  • Have a good sleep routine
  • Find reasons to smile
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Book Review: Upgraded

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I’ve been a reading slump for a few months now mainly because I felt like I’ve been reading too many non fiction books.

I usually set a reading goal for myself every year. I definitely aim high. But this year I’m not confident in getting to that goal. I’m about 40% there with only about 20% of the year left. That means I’d have to finish a book every 1.5 weeks. Seems daunting.

I know I could reach that goal reading a whole bunch of fluff that are easy to get through, but for me – reading is a way to knowledge. So even my fiction books have to teach and inspire me in some way.

So, atlas …I persist.

I do want to share this amazing fiction book I recently read. (I borrowed my book from Vaughan Public Library system because I love libraries (and sustainability).
*needs a totebag with that phrase on it*)

Upgrade by Blake Crouch is about a near dystopian future where science has taken on a twisted yet believable turn “DNA editing”. The story weaves between a son (who works for a FBI like agency looking to prevent corrupted gene editing), his sister and his mother (a science genius pushing the boundaries with hopes of saving the earth). There is a lot of scientific jargon (naming of genes etc) with enough depth to help me understand the characters knowledge but also confusing at times (I glossed over that). Blake Crouch is an author that can create drama, intrigue and action to capture the reader’s attention and also help the reader read faster (lol if that makes sense). Since I don’t want to give away any spoilers, I’ll end off here with saying I give this a 5/5 ⭐️

And if you need any further inclination, here are some of the quotes I annotated! Enjoy!

  • We were on the outskirts of the city doing 120mph. The dual electric motors were almost silent.
  • Parts of New York City and most of Miami were underwater, and an island of plastic the size of Iceland was floating in the Indian Ocean.
  • But it wasn’t just humans who’d been affected. There were no more northern white rhinos or South China tigers. The red wolves were gone, along with countless other species.  There were no more glaciers in Glacier National Park.
  • We had gotten so much right. And too much wrong. The future was here, and it was a fucking mess.
  • I had extraordinary dreams and an ordinary mind.
  • I wanted to actually do something, you know? It’s the difference between designing a house and building the thing.
  • Memories were coming back to me, and not just of every book I’d ever read. Random moments of insignificance. Pivotal events that had shaped my life. From a month ago. From a decade ago. From my childhood. It was an eerie sensation. As if someone were brooming out the dark corners of my mind. Wiping off the cobwebs. Repairing frayed connections.
  • “So you’re saying people are too stupid?” “Not just that,” Miriam said. “It’s denial. Selfishness. Magical thinking. We are not rational beings. We seek comfort rather than a clear-eyed stare into reality. We consume and preen and convince ourselves that if we keep our heads in the sand, the monsters will just go away. Simply put, we refuse to help ourselves as a species. We refuse to do what must be done. Every danger we face links ultimately back to this failing.”
  • I’d felt it that night and I felt it on this one-being with Kara quenched some evolutionary thirst. A primal, genetic need to belong to a tribe.
  • We were a bunch of primates who had gotten together and, against all odds, built a wondrous civilization. But paradoxically-tragically-our creation’s complexity had now far outstripped our brains’ ability to manage it.
  • While I waited for my food, I pulled out a small, leather-bound journal I always carried with me, flipped to the next blank page, and started a new letter.
  • You’re working off a flawed assumption. Higher intelligence doesn’t make you less greedy or self-centered or evil. It doesn’t necessarily make you a good person.
  • Right and wrong are constructs born of human sentiment.
  • Nothing but stories we’ve made up and assigned meaning to. They don’t correspond to any objective reality. The only thing real is survival.
  • Maybe compassion and empathy are just squishy emotions. Illusions created by our mirror neuons. But does it really matter where they come from? They make us human. They might even be what make us worth saving.
  • And I was struck, again, as an outside observer, by how much the members of our species needed one another. All these people out in the cold rain. To laugh and drink. To talk about nothing. It was almost as if that need for connection and touch was our … their … lifeblood.
  • “Consider this. For a time, Kara and I were the only upgraded humans on this planet. And what did we do? Immediately tried to kill each other over differences in belief. You got the upgrade and decided to help Kara release a virus that will lead to mass suffering and death. Doesn’t feel like intelligence itself is the answer. It terrifies me to think of a world where we have all the same problems, a billion less friends, and everyone thinks they’re smart enough to be infallible.”
  • “So you’d rather have no world at all?” “That’s a false binary. We are in trouble, but that doesn’t mean this is the only solution. Rejecting something that involves killing a billion people isn’t the same thing as sticking my head in the sand while the world burns.”
  • “You can’t kill humanity to save humanity. Human beings are not a means to an end.”
  • The temptation to swim over was strong. Barter for break-fast. See about getting a boat. But the commotion at 140 Broadway last night must’ve sounded like Armageddon. Anyone in the vicinity would have heard it, and me stumbling into their midst would only raise an alarm. So I settled for watching them from a distance-this forgotten fragment of humanity making a life together in the most inhospitable of places.
  • They seemed truly happy, and it made me happy to watch them—a thousand small kindnesses among people who had nothing to give.
  • We were a monstrous, thoughtful, selfish, sensitive, fearful, ambitious, loving, hateful, hopeful species. We contained within us the potential for great evil, but also for great good. And we were capable of so much more than this.