Is the Hobby Holding You Back From Being Great?

pogre · Apr 21, 2017

One of my assistant coaches and I had a fascinating conversation this morning where he asked me about goals in life and what gave me satisfaction. I gave kind of the standard answer about having balance in all things, etc. He disagreed. He said every GREAT person he knew of was singularly focused on one of area of his life. I said asking me how to be great and how to have a happy and satisfying life are two very different questions.

When we talked about my career - I have been successful overall, but have not achieved an elite level with my teams. My assistant knows I play games and enjoy the hobby and he asked - "Do you think the hobby held you back from being as great as you could have been?"

I think it probably has. There is not a day that I don't think about gaming on some level. If you take away the gaming, would I have the drive to use that time, focus, and energy into being better at my career. For me, the answer is yes.

What do you think? Is/has the Hobby held you back from being great in your career?

BTW - I choose happiness and balance over being great. I'm not giving up gaming any time soon.

jimmifett · Apr 21, 2017

Not in the slightest, I've always been great in just about everything I decide to do. Hard work, hard play.

TreChriron · Apr 21, 2017

What if you want to be great at GMing? Or publishing? There are ways to focus on the hobby and achieve a level of "greatness". Trying to conform to external standards of greatness is folly. Follow your heart. Relationships, service and generosity are far more important to me than the elusive "greatness".

Ralif Redhammer · Apr 21, 2017

No…if anything, I owe my career to the love a language and writing that came from my interest in gaming.

I would say that if anything, our hobbies make us better at our jobs. We need that personal time and passion to recharge our batteries. Whether it’s spending time with gaming or with my music, without that I wouldn’t be the person I am, the person that they hired to do the job.

3ArmSally · Apr 21, 2017

Nothing personal but your assistant coach sounds full of it. Great people still have hobbies. You need to dedicate yourself to become great at something but that has nothing to do with hobbies and everything to do with not wasting time on the couch for four hours a night getting fatter and dumber. I'll list some examples of "Great" individuals with high profile, time consuming hobbies
-Bill Clinton- saxophone player (it takes practice to be good enough not to embarrass yourself on TV)
-Vin Diesel- literally the hobby that you think is holding you back
-Harrison Ford- Amateur pilot
-Every politician ever it seems- Golf (it eats more time than most gaming sessions)
-Anyone who's surprisingly appeared on Dancing With the Stars- Dancing (that seems obvious)

Hobbies don't hold you back.

cmad1977 · Apr 21, 2017

I'm not particularly great, or even kinda good. It's not the hobby in my case.

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Flexor the Mighty! · Apr 21, 2017

Of the things I've done that have held me back D&D is pretty low on the list. But there have been times where I've neglected more important things due to gaming.

TwoSix · Apr 21, 2017

Maybe/probably, but it's more due to the fact that I've never particularly aspired to be great at anything. I have a quite comfortable life and have no problems coasting on my talents. Greatness usually involves far more sacrifice than I'd be willing to make.

Besides, we're all going to die anyway. Eat Arby's.

Emirikol · Apr 22, 2017

The hobby has absolutely, negatively affected my ability to see more patients and market more. Hence, my rapid rise to mediocrity. It is a tough balance. It feels as if I'm in the movie Fight Club and I'm the lead character with a gun in my mouth every day. "Tyler Durden. Tyler Durden. Tyler Durden. Is that what you want me to say?"

Grant Cardone says, "Be obsessed, or be average."

jh

doctorbadwolf · Apr 22, 2017

I think the whole notion of Greatness, as this singular thing that is achieved through hard work and blah blah is mostly a myth, with maybe a half dozen exceptions over the entire course of history.

So, I'm not too worried about being "Great", I would much rather be Good.

And gaming certainly doesn't hold me back from that. In fact, I've learned a lot about people, and how to be good to them, from gaming.

On the other hand, if I were to end up one of histories Great People, it would almost certainly involve my love, and grasp, of language and story telling, so...dnd sure as balls isn't standing in the way of that.

I mean...twitter, maybe. But not DnD.