Gaming has made me a better decision-maker IRL

[StaceyPowers]

I’ve posted a few times about how gaming helps me reduce my anxiety and sleep better at night. Over the past few months I’ve discovered another surprising benefit.

I’ve had lifelong difficulties making decisions on my own, which reflects childhood issues (pretty standard stuff). Recently, making decisions has become a lot easier, and I feel a lot more confident about my choices. There are a number of reasons for that, but it turns out gaming is one of the factors.

I’ve discovered that when I am faced with a set of choices now, I literally line them up in my mind as if they are dialogue options in a game. If there is one obvious right choice in a game, it’s easy to take it, even if party members protest. And now I am basically just doing the same thing IRL, without overcomplicating things.

It’s a small thing, but it’s been surprisingly powerful, and I’ve made some significant changes to my life with it. It doesn’t apply with decisions which really do involve a lot of gray areas and complexities, but a lot of choices really are surprisingly simple if one just doesn’t overthink things.

Has anyone else found that gaming helps you weigh decisions effectively?

[Bravosi]

True. Especially strategy games increase your overall awareness!

[TheSteelyardDweller]

On 5/16/2019 at 11:31 PM, Bravosi said:

True. Especially strategy games increase your overall awareness!

good call bro. good for learning to manage time and resources too.

[skyfire]

I think gaming makes us think from different perspective. Like say we always try to find other options to solve some of the problems in our hand. And in such context I'd say that real life is lot different but thinking from different perspectives is a good practice to build.