I apologize for my sideburns and striped shirt

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For the First Time in 10+ Years, I Rewatched My 2012 TEDx Talk

My Biggest Surprise Rewatching…

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It wasn’t as embarrassing as I thought! Baby Steve actually had some decent ideas and was an okay storyteller! Especially when you consider I had rewritten the entire talk 12 hours prior and was on zero hours of sleep. Oh, to be young and naive again.

How’s My Epic Quest Going?

In my talk, I talk about my Bucket List, which I renamed my Epic Quest of Awesome. For a good 8 years, this was a big focus of mine. Literally earning experience points for accomplishing quests in real life.

I did this after exercising around the world and living 14 months of adventure travel. I even got a book published about turning life into a game, "font-weight: 400;">.

I’ve changed my perspective on goals. I had run myself ragged for over a decade, building Nerd Fitness, giving as much as possible, chasing the next goal. Each goal led to the next goal. Each dragon slain required me to go find another dragon. And eventually I realized that I had gotten pretty far away from what actually made me happy.

These past few years, I’ve decided to live a bit differently. Instead of big long term goals with dramatically organized plans, I’ve narrowed my focus to: “How can I have a good day today?”

I still have goals, and I still have things I hope to accomplish in life. I’m just playing a different game than I was at 28. I think this “life is a game” philosophy served me well at the time, and I think now I have added a few extra doses of reality to how this plays out.

For somebody stuck in a rut, and escaping too much into virtual worlds, I think thinking about life like a video game can be a pretty fun way to try and break out of that rut. It might not work for everybody, but I think having things to look forward to, and goals to work on, and then finding ways to make tiny bits of progress can help.

Wading into the Comment Section…

I made the perilous choice to wade into the cesspool of the internet: The comment section on my video. I was shocked to see that 95% of the comments were super positive! There was one comment though, that provided me a unique opportunity to do something I’ve always wanted to do. Prove somebody wrong on the internet.

Two Buttons: Power and Reset

I finished my talk with something that was far more powerful than I had expected. The original Nintendo Entertainment System has two buttons: POWER and RESET. In the game of life, we get to hit the power button once. It turns on when we’re born, and it turns off when we die. But we also have an opportunity to hit the RESET Button. If there’s a thought or identity you have that’s no longer serving you, or some aspect of life that just isn’t working…it’s okay to hit the reset button.

Conclusion

Game on, my fellow nerd!

FAQs

Q: What was the most surprising thing about rewatching your TEDx talk?
A: That it wasn’t as embarrassing as I thought!

Q: What changed about your perspective on goals?
A: I realized that I had gotten pretty far away from what actually made me happy, and I decided to focus on having a good day today instead of big long term goals.

Q: What do you think about thinking about life like a video game?
A: I think it can be a fun way to try and break out of a rut, but it might not work for everybody.