I used to be addicted to video games. For me, my game was Dota 2 – I would play for hours every day for months, and not feel bored. And while I can’t say I’m particularly proud of this, there are a few lessons I’ve taken away from playing games.

One lesson is that the time you spend playing a game has little correlation with your skill.

Over my years of playing, I made friends with other gamers and over time, I could see how their rank was changing. Did someone move up from Archon to Legend? Or did someone move down a medal? It was interesting to see how their skill level was changing over time.

The strange thing was, the people who had the most amount of games were rarely the highest ranked. There were people who had over 5,000 hours on the game but had an average ranking. In fact, most of these players never changed their overall rank for all the games they played. On the other hand, I knew people who had played under 500 hours and were in the top bracket of gamers, on the verge of playing professionally.

Why was there such a discrepancy? Shouldn’t the players with more games be better with time? How can a gamer with 5,000 hours be worse than another gamer with 500 hours? It didn’t make sense to me.

The Power of Reflection

Because I was so curious, I asked the top players with fewer hours what they did to make them so good. And the common answer was quickly became apparent: reflection.

The top players were intentional about improving their gameplay. They watched guides from professional players and took down notes. They analysed their own replays and learnt from their mistakes. They never started a new game unless they had a game plan on what to work on that game.

This is what separated them from the rest of the crowd. In Dota 2, it’s too easy to mindlessly queue games all day, without adjusting for one’s performance. You win or lose, think “that was fun”, and just play another. Analysing your games is difficult and painful, whereas playing the game habitually guarantees some level of fun.

These top players weren’t naturally better at games than everyone else. Their hand-eye coordination had flaws, as did their IQ or memory. What they did to outperform everybody else was intentionally reflect.

Not playing to improve is fine, of course. Everyone has different reasons for playing video games. Some people like playing the heroes they enjoy and don’t mind leisurely queueing for fun with no real agenda. Some play to just relax with friends and have a good time. There is no right or wrong approach.

But the power of reflection, I think, applies to life as well. In my experience, I’ve found both older people who seem childish, and also younger people who are brilliant. The number of hours played in life didn’t correlate with character development. The key factor that distinguished them was how intentional they were with their growth.

Questions like,

• “What’s the best thing I can do right now?”
• “How could I have done that better?”
• “What did I learn today that will help me tomorrow?”

are so simple, but can be the difference between levelling up at the game, versus staying where you are.

In games, I find it worthwhile to see how strong your character can become. To really push the game and your character to its greatest potential. Staying at the same level for too long is easy but seems like a bit of a waste of time.

As Jim Rohn said:
“There are two types of pain you will go through in life, the pain of discipline and the pain of regret.
Discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tonnes.”