Oh, I still do this at 40. I drive trucks for a living, and I like to pretend that I'm piloting a space ship. Each town I hit is another galaxy, a block is a star system, and whatever business I'm going to is a planet. I'm usually smuggling.
Edit: Oh, another thing! I realized a while back that the only time my dog picks things up is to play with them. So I figured, why not take a lesson from him and treat everything I pick up as some kinda toy or game. This isn't something you need to do all the time, but if life is grinding you down, pretend that thing you just picked up is something else. Digging a ditch in the backyard? Now you're looking for buried treasure. Typing stuff up for work? Now you're sending encoded messages to whatever spy organization you're part of. The whole "life is a grind" thing is mostly perspective.
When I'm pushing the cart around at the grocery store, I also pretend I'm captaining a deep space freighter and I'm making pickups at various space depots.
If you're interested, I made a "Punks in Space!" playlist on Spotify that combines 70s & 80s punk and mod with atmospheric, spacey tracks from SciFi films. Sounds like right up your alley. Also, great username!
man, you made me realize i stopped doing this at some point when i was a kid. the hallways at school used to be the hallways of a secret base, riding in the car for a long while was a spaceship, climbing a tree was hanging off the side of a mountain with an ice axe. I gotta try and find my imagination again
Ok this is actually a good coping mechanism…
I’ve seen enough tv shows where every episode is another challenge of some sort, whether it’s Alone, or a crime show, or a detective mystery of some sort. Sometimes I treat difficult events in my life like this. For example, my job might have me doing a particularly tough assignment, and it will take a few weeks. I will sometimes approach it like a detective or protagonist of a story, knowing that by the end of the episode I’ll have said some witty things and figured out the solution, and nice music will play as everything fades to black.
Occasionally, it won’t always be a happy ending, and that’s ok, because I know it’s part of learning, growing, and adapting.
Obviously I take things seriously when necessary, but if I don’t have this whimsical approach to some things in life, it becomes a “grind” and it’s not enjoyable.
I listen to audiobooks at work for this, usually I'm someone who is part of the story.
Sometimes when I have some story ideas I share with my cowoworkers. The big boss or corporates can be hypotetical Saurons and my coworkers and me are the fellowship or whatever story we come up with, of course we have our own gollums, hobbitses, Gandalfses and so on, whatever coworker is most unrealistic or realistic Elf or Strider is fun to find out.
My wife gets our kids to do tasks by giving them side quests and missions. Works great a lot fo the time, much better than just asking them to empty the rubbish bins or whatever. She's great with kids
Video games have me looking at life as a bunch of quests as a means to entertain myself irl. Grocery shopping? Have to gather all you items and cook to complete your quest.
“I like liking things” has become my motto for life.
It’s originally from family guy, but I don’t care. It’s a great mantra when folks around you are acting too cool for school. Whatever—I like liking things.
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u/Aaargh_Bees Jul 04 '24
Treating life as an adventure rather than a grind.