24: Confidence or Fear? | The Monday Experience

Welcome to another installment of The Monday Experience! While playing the video game Overwatch, and consequently getting my butt kicked, a lot of things fell into place for me in a matter of seconds. Confidence or fear? Playing it nice or going after what I want? I want to share that story with you and provide a few insights on my observations.

Confidence or Fear?

Recently I was playing Overwatch and found myself in a situation where my team, and I personally, were getting trampled. I was getting shot at and quickly losing health and found myself just running away from the fight, licking my wounds and searching for a health pack. But I realized I wasn't just running away to find health, I was trying to save myself. I was running away in fear rather than as some strategic ploy.

Here's the kicker: the guy who was shooting at me followed me in my attempt to run away. He hunted me down and still killed me, even though I was running away. At that point I thought the match was over.

In that moment it struck me; I was scared (in the video game sense of scared), ready to run away and find safety, and yet I still died. What the heck? Over the next couple seconds, a lot of thoughts went through my head.

Despite the fact that I strongly believe in loving, respecting and valuing the next person, I had to acknowledge that playing it nice was getting me nowhere. But I don't believe loving, respecting and valuing others equals being nice. I've had numerous situations in my life recently, and even over the past decade, where I've been timid, nice, fearful, hesitant and... guess what happened? Nothing good. Nothing.

In business, friendships, leadership, life, boundaries, health, playing it nice or being timid, fearful, or scared never got me anywhere. And in that moment, when I was getting hunted down in Overwatch, it was clear that just like with animals... when someone is weak or timid or scared or fearful, others will take advantage and prey on that weakness. It's primal, instinctual.

While we hope that others are far wiser and more enlightened than to act on such primal instincts, what I've seen from life is that it doesn't often happen in favor of the weak. I realized I needed to be strong, set aside fear, and seize the confidence I know is within me. Not just playing Overwatch, but in everything.

After getting a little mad at myself for being so weak, I jumped right back into the game when I respawned and pushed full speed ahead with no fear. I took down a ton of players on the other team and we won the match! By the end of the game, the other team was running away from me!

Everything I ever learned, I learned from video games. Sure, it's just a game... but this is a valuable life lesson. It doesn't matter where I learned it, it matters that I apply this mentality in other aspects of my life. So, while keeping in mind that I need to make smart choices and don't do something too drastic or stupid, I still need to stand up. Be courageous. Be strong. Be a leader. Be confident.