Being Honest with Oneself: A Long Term Winning Strategy

We’ll all been in that game where every possible thing goes wrong. Your teammates are complete idiots, each close cut scenario goes in favour of your enemy instead of yourself, you can’t catch a lucky break even just to stem the bleeding and all hope is lost. When you’re consumed by anger and disappointment its easy to dismiss everything that has just happened and attribute it to the flailing, keyboard-smashing imbeciles on your team and having skipped your regular ritual sacrifice to Lady Luck. But! Though, this may be a easy, and immediately cathartic, path to pursue it is not the most beneficial one to undertake for yourself.

However tempting it may be to blame your failure on … any number of other factors that may have contributed to your untimely demise try your best not to. Instead, consider what YOU could have done better.

However tempting it may be to blame your failure on a lack of luck, the incompetency of your teammates, the enemy’s unfair tactics or any number of other factors that may have contributed to your untimely demise try your best not to. Instead, consider what YOU could have done better.

Yes, we know. Teammates, lag, bad luck, game unfair, hero broken, gun overpowered, whatever. But outside of all of that, how could you have improved how you impacted the game?

 There’s always something you can improve on. So, take the opportunity to continuously better yourself.

For example, when I play DotA I’ve become quite good at dominating my lane as a mid hero or farming effectively as a carry. But, despite that, there are still games where my team and I fail to secure the game. So, if I was successful at doing what I was supposed to be doing but what could I have done better? As a carry, maybe I should have TPed in for a few more team fights where I could have swung it and picked up some kills as well or gone for a more optimal item progression. As a mid, I wrecked my opponent but I could have more diligent calling out misses, runes picked up, or ganking other lanes. There’s always something you can improve on. So, take the opportunity to continuously better yourself. Whether you’re winning or losing. Whether you feel that your fate is out of your hands or if you’ve done absolutely all you can. Reflect on what you’ve done, and what you could have done better.

Assigning blame is a simple task. Being intelligent and thoughtful enough to consider where you could have done better in any situation is much more difficult. But, in the long run, you will reap the rewards of the extra effort and thought you’ve put into your play. I’ve even seen it amongst my friends that I play with. With a remarkable difference between those who are willing to accept that they’ve made mistakes and reflect on what they could have done better and those who prefer to ascribe their failures to everyone around them.

Coming up soon. Thoughts on dealing with problematic teammates and ways to turn around, or at least mitigate, their impact.

That’s all for now. Have a pezant day!

Note: If you liked this article. Consider donating or installing this Chrome Extension I made that gives me credit for your Amazon purchases (by adding in my referral tag when you’re browsing Amazon).”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *