Brief Summary
This video introduces a framework of four habits and a bonus habit designed to make everyday life feel like an open-world adventure game, emphasizing freedom and adventure. It uses the hero's journey as a model, breaking down the adventure into call to adventure, the adventure begins, the climax, and growth. The video encourages viewers to actively seek adventures, embrace challenges, and appreciate the growth from each experience, while also continuing adventures to reduce the need to constantly find new ones.
- Seek adventure in your day.
- Embrace challenges.
- Appreciate the growth from each experience.
- Continue adventures to reduce the need to constantly find new ones.
Intro: The Open World Life
The video starts by painting a picture of open-world games and how they make you feel, then introduces the idea of making your life feel like one. The speaker claims to have a framework consisting of four habits and a bonus habit to help you achieve this. The core experience of open world games is lots of small adventures threaded together in a seamless way. Open world games have two defining traits: freedom and adventure.
The Hero's Journey
The video introduces the hero's journey as a formula for adventures, using Breath of the Wild as an example. The hero's journey consists of four parts: the call to adventure, the adventure begins, the climax, and growth.
Part 1: Call to Adventure
The call to adventure is the initial push that forces the hero to embark on their adventure. To make every day an adventure, it has to start with a call to adventure. To make sure every day feels like an adventure, you have to actively keep your eyes open and search for these entry points into adventure. The first habit is seeking adventure in your day. The speaker shares a personal anecdote of helping a girl with a printer in a library as an example of finding a call to adventure in everyday life.
Part 2: The Adventure Begins
This is when the hero steps out into their new world and accepts the adventure. The hero quickly learns the basics of their new world, meets new allies, new enemies, and engages in some conflict. The initial choice to actually starting the adventure is what stops so many people from actually going on them. If you're scared to speak up or approach someone, just think of it like a challenge in a game. The speaker suggests pretending you're activating an event or talking to an NPC by drawing an imaginary line between you and them and just walking over. For bonus points, you can even try combining it with the countdown method.
Part 3: The Climax
This is where the hero takes on the final test. To actually make your adventure enjoyable, you have to challenge yourself. This can be as simple as talking to a stranger, or it can be learning a new skill or doing something physically challenging. The speaker shares a personal anecdote of helping a girl with a printer in a library as an example of challenging yourself in an adventure.
Part 4: Growth
After saving the world, it changes. Not just the world around the hero, but the hero themselves. The speaker shares a personal anecdote of helping a girl with a printer in a library as an example of growth. Even if you totally flop the social encounter, it still would have been worthwhile because you'll learn from that experience for the next adventure. If you're going to have a little adventure every day, then you want to remember them, so it's a great idea to keep a small notebook or a notes page on your phone where you jot down your adventures.
Part 5: Bonus
The hero's journey doesn't fully consider that the hero will embark on a new adventure, which is exactly why the speaker added this bonus habit. Each adventure isn't just one standalone adventure, but the beginning of a campaign. Continuing an adventure can be as simple as exploring a park more, learning more on a subject you discovered, or meeting up with a new friend you made.
Actionable Steps
The video concludes with a summary of actionable steps: actively look for adventures with genuine curiosity, draw the invisible line and count down from five if needed, challenge yourself to make the adventure exciting, and appreciate and remember the benefits in a journal, viewing each adventure as the start of a series.
