I believe that if one can look at him or herself without judgment and with sufficient knowledge about oneself and situation in life, that he or she can make wise, educated, and helpful choices for him or herself. If you play video games or roleplaying games regularly then you have already practiced these concepts regularly. What’s even more astounding is that all you need to hone in on is two things without judgment and learning about yourself.
Refraining from being judgmental is a life-long skill to learn. It forces you to be open and aware of what you are doing in life and be okay with that. It’s tough, and I do not claim to be any master. I do however know a few things that help me stay grounded. Remember: you suck at things. It’s not deprecating to look at yourself and be honest. For example, I am terrible at basketball; let’s say I have a +0 to all related checks dealing with basketball. Adversely, you are great at certain things. You might be wickedly competent at coding, horseback riding, or cooking. Good for you.
“Non-judgmentality” does not mean “complacency” in a negative sense, inactivity, or passivity about aspects of yourself. What it is, is looking at your character sheet and seeing how you can make the most of this. It’s funny how we can look at our characters and do the best at low levels eventually getting better, but in real life the fact that we are low leveled in things cripples us so we stay stagnant. This is most likely due to the fact that for the sake of “learning,” we set ourselves up for failure. For example, I have a +0, while we will imagine Rett to have a +5. If I challenge him and lose, I will beat myself up for not being as good as him, even though he has the numbers on me to win. The more helpful path clearly is to challenge him; however, I know that winning might not happen and I should just grab the XP from that encounter.
Next week I will get all “Know thyself” with aspects of the personality and how to quantify yourself like a character sheet. But I am curious: what skills, abilities, and feats should go into this factoring? E-mail me at justin@pixelatedgeek.com or leave a comment below if you have a suggestion.