Sounds crazy at first when somebody tells you that there are a lot of life lessons in Skyrim, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find yourself astonished. Anything that you voluntarily spend over 100 hours of your life doing must be pretty good. In the case of Skyrim this is a gross understatement. Over the last year I had been advised by numerous people that this game would blow my mind and take over my life, even though I suspected they were going to be right I did not realize how much.
Since I finally gave in to temptation and started playing this game late last year I have seen the amount of hours clocked in on my game save go up and up to the point where I am now officially a centurion. That’s right, I have spent well over 100 hours of my life devoted to exploring every nook and cranny of the massive world map, completing quest after quest, and annoying my friends by talking about it.
With a little close inspection, something meant for entertainment such as a computer game can point the way to you leveling up in life and reaping rewards.
Some Background on Skyrim
For those who do not know, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the fifth in a series of sprawling and action packed role-playing video games that take place in the fictional world of Tamriel. The latest installment is set in the Norse-influenced country of Skyrim, a land of towering mountains, green plains, and icy wastes and seas – teeming with monsters and wildlife and encrusted with cities, towns, ruins and fortresses. A place that would be as at home in the ancient mythology of Norse Viking legend as it would be in Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
The main story follows your highly customizable character as he escapes execution only to find that Skyrim is now infested with newly resurrected Dragons. As if this was not enough to cope with, your hero discovers that he is the prophesized coming of a warrior known as the Dragon-born or DovahKiin, a mortal with the soul of a dragon who is capable of defeating this new winged scourge and absorbing their souls. This hero also has the power of the voice, using shouts in the tongue of dragons and imbued with their deadly power. That is only the tip of the iceberg of what Skyrim has to offer.
As a result of this grandiose concept and staggering story-line as well as hours of addictive gameplay, Betheseda Software Works’ Skyrim won the coveted ‘Game of the Year’ title in 2011 and is now the yardstick that all other games are measured by for everything from depth of content, gameplay, graphics, music scores and sound effects, value for money, and everything else that goes into making a classic game.
In my own personal opinion I will go as far as saying this is the best game of all time, but I do believe there is more to it than that. The amount of hours spent in creating my character and raising them up from little more than a pauper in sack clothes to the hero of a whole world got me thinking of the parallels this has with our own real life journeys to better ourselves and unleash our potential.
There is power in your voice
The Thu’um or shout of the Dragon-born is perhaps the deadliest weapon at the disposal of your hero. This projecting of the voice using the language of the dragons includes having the power to unleash pure physical force, breathe fire, start lightning storms, or even freeze an opponent into a block of solid ice. This makes Skyrim’s protagonist one of the most formidable characters in gaming history.
Friendship & Leadership
Now you may not be able to send a troll flying off a cliff with a single shout in real life, but that does not mean that you have no power in your voice. Often what you say and how you say it can have an incredible impact in all sorts of situations. Sports coaches will be able to rally their athletes using motivational language and the assertive tone of voice of a leader. A counselor will choose their words carefully and use an empathetic timbre to help a client open up to them. If you sit and think about it, there are hundreds of situations where the voice carries the power to change the world in ear shot of it.
Dating & Romance
Your voice has the ability to make you more attractive to the opposite sex, but if not used correctly will have a converse effect. You may approach an attractive woman with the view to get her phone number, but during the conversation your voice starts to go a little higher in pitch and tone, possibly as a subconscious way of projecting that you are not a threat to them. Unfortunately, this actually projects an insecure and unassertive image of yourself instead of the confident and attractive image you would like to have. Instead, try and maintain an even and normal tone of voice in this sort of interaction.
Career & Power
The above example can often apply itself to your dealings at work as well as in your romantic life. When I worked in a call center, I would often find that both myself and my colleagues would often finish explaining something to a customer only to finish the sentence with the word ‘ok?’ delivered in a higher register. In this situation it is almost like you are looking for the person to whom you are speaking to qualify you, almost like you need their approval. Remember, to show you are in authority and that you believe in what you are saying you should deliver your part of the interaction in a calm and assertive manor, without inviting the party to whom you are speaking to confirm that what you said was satisfactory and in turn give them the power. Your voice has the potential to demonstrate the power of your personality, don’t let it demonstrate your insecurities by mistake!
Books are a path to self-improvement
When playing Skyrim there is one thing you will find in just about every location in one form or another and that is books. In fact, reading will play a pivotal role in your success in various quests as well as the development of your character. You can find tomes that detail the colorful history of the world of Tamriel in Skyrim, stories and legends, journals of characters, and skill books that help improve your Skyrim hero’s abilities. If you were to include the letters often delivered to you at random by a courier during the game you will find that there is over 800 pieces of readable material contained within the game, it is fair to say then that in order to thrive in Skyrim – reading is a must.
Reading Translates to Development & Progress
I believe the same is true in real life: The written word can help you thrive. In the real world there is no limit to the subject matter you can read about in books, magazines and online. You can read fiction to help you relax and escape; you can learn about the history of the world we live in or walk a mile in someone else’s shoes via an autobiography; and you can even learn about how to make a positive impact on your life in the gym or out by reading articles here on Confitdent.
No Excuses: Literature is Everywhere
Despite the advent of the digital age, reading is getting more popular again. With the revolution of e-books and kindles the two worlds have collided and adapted to push literature of all kinds to the next level, meaning you can take a whole collection of books with you in your pocket right there on your smartphone. As if this was not enough to get people interested in reading again then you have a large selection of free books on Google Play that you can download and peruse at your leisure.
Reading Will Help Turn Words Into Positive Actions
There is no limit to what the written word can do for you, make a pledge to read more often – it will help expand your experience and broaden your mind as well as perhaps providing you with inspiration and knowledge that could help you turn words into positive actions in your own life.
Studies have shown that reading before bed is meditative and helps your brain and body engage their parasympathetic systems and consequently make you unwind before sleep. This may help inspire you to put down the controller close to bed time and open a book instead.
Learning from others is the fast track to your development
Your protagonists journey in Skyrim to becoming a master archer or blacksmith is a long and arduous road featuring many hours of practice with the bow or at the forge, slowly leveling up to become more and more skilled at your chosen crafts until you have no equal. This does take time but is made easier by the fact you can find good teachers along the way who can help push you to the next level, either in exchange for your help or for payment in good old fashioned gold.
Find a Mentor
No matter what you are doing in life there is always going to be someone, somewhere who has more experience and knowledge than you and you can always improve no matter how good you are. Maybe you want to improve your fitness and so you ask a friend who is more experienced than you to be your gym buddy so you can learn more about how to get more out of your workout, or perhaps you are in this same situation and decide to pay for a Personal Trainer to do the same thing but to higher level with the added bonus of them being partly accountable to your success as it is their job. You could be struggling to get past the basic part of learning a language and so you decide to get a one to one evening lesson with a local teacher of that tongue so you can ask questions and have your stumbling blocks broken down into something manageable to comprehend. There is a chance you may have always had an interest in a particular subject and you decide to take a course or get further education in it, committing your time and energy in getting a qualification to match your passion in your chosen field.
Speak Up to Absorb Everything
Learning from another person can occur at all kinds of different levels but they all share a common variable that will potentially turn that advice into something you can use. That variable is your ability to listen to what is being taught to you, remember you have two ears and one mouth which shows it takes twice as much effort to listen to something than say it. Once you have heard your lesson, make sure you understand it and don’t be afraid to ask questions to clear up anything you may not grasp.
Apply Your Lessons to Make the Most of Them
Finally, put into practice the theory you have learned until the lesson you have been taught becomes a skill at your disposal or a habit of your lifestyle. Remember to always show gratitude and respect to your teacher. Teaching can be a joy but at the same time it takes energy to do it well as well as the teacher’s time, both are worth their weight in gold!
Learning anything from anyone is going to take some effort and of course work, this is a fact of life in the real world. Skyrim might be able to show you that other people have things they can teach you, but it will always take more effort from you than just pressing a button and then suddenly being more skilled. Don’t forget that the value of knowledge is in sharing it, if you have the opportunity to share your knowledge or experience with someone then be generous with it because you were the student once!
Taking time to think things through will get you through
In a virtual world full of perilous dungeons, well-guarded forts, cunning traps and puzzles, and seemingly invincible opponents; it is not wise to go running into a situation half-cocked or unprepared. Without a little careful thought or pre-planning your hero could meet a sticky end. Examples of how I have come unstuck while playing Skyrim that could have been avoided include (but are not limited to):
Standing on pressure plates or tripwires and triggering a booby trap, running out of health potions only to be ambushed by a pack of Frostbite Spiders, attempting to take on a landed Dragon head on in a hand to hand fight only to get used as chew toy, and pressing the shout button by mistake while sneezing only to Fus Ro Dah an ally off of a cliff. That is to name but a few! It is safe to say that I have learned lessons from all these incidents and now look where I tread, check my inventory is well stocked before heading out on a quest, weaken dragons from distance before attempting a killing blow, and pause my game if I need to sneeze.
Apply Strategy to Everything You Do
Some may say these are sensible habits to get into, others may say this is you using a strategic mind at some level. Either way, in the real world as well as in Skyrim it is prudent to think things through before acting. If you have an awkward not in your boot laces is it better to carefully consider how the lace was tied and then act or pull one of the ends in the hope it comes undone as opposed to tightening? You need to get all your bands equipment into one car, do you take your time finding the best way for everything to fit or do you shove everything in there and hope for the best? You have are having an argument with a loved one, do you let it escalate and let your emotions carry the situation potentially out of control or do you try and calm things down while trying to get to the heart of what is causing the disagreement? I think we can all say that we have done the former in all those examples or similar before, maybe you got through the situation by the seat of your pants and skin of your teeth or more likely you came out with a less than favourable outcome. The reason being that in a situation where a little strategy goes a long way you could find your odds of success reduced by taking a knee jerk response to the scenario.
Assess the Situation
Whenever you find yourself at a point where your course of action to progress may not be obvious to you or you are not sure what to do then ask your-self these questions:
- What do I have to lose if I half-ass things and come up short?
- How can I improve my odds of success from this challenge?
Thinking about the answers to these at a relevant time will help turn the actions you make into more successful outcomes and a greater realisation to your potential. This way of thinking could help you with all sorts of practical applications from working out when you are going to the gym this week & what you are going to do when you get there to thinking ahead to what meals you are going to eat this week and get what you need from the shop to make them. Strategy is fine arrow to have in your quiver of skills to improve your lifestyle. Think before you act because there are no save points in real life and the clock is always ticking.
Preparing good meals will bring health bonuses
Skyrim is a land filled with all kinds of flora and fauna that can be picked or hunted/fished by your adventurer and used as a potential meal. Markets and shops are also available where you can buy more of the same meats, herbs, and vegetables – for those who are not inclined to forage for their own consumables!
Once you have a collection of these ingredients in your inventory you can find one of the readily available Cooking pots -found everywhere from campsites and castles, your own home and beyond- and create yourself a meal that can provide a plethora of health and stamina bonuses for your character. Whether it is stews, steaks or soups that you prepare to eat straight away or carry in your inventory for much needed sustenance during a quest, these meals can teach you a valuable lesson about what nourish yourself on when away from your games console.
As is the nature of a world based on a time before ready meals, microwaves and mass consumerist junk food became the status quo – the food in Skyrim can be held up as a good model of what today we call Organic. The meats are sourced from either wild game that has been hunted or from farmers who rear cattle to traditional methods; you won’t find a cow pumped with antibiotics or being fed questionable feed on a farm in the Nord heartland. Similarly, the vegetables available to your protagonist will not have been within a mile of pesticides. Yes, you can argue that this is not real life but it does not mean that it is not setting an excellent example for how you can live your life and feed yourself.
Take the Time to Prepare the Right Fuel
The world is a slave to time and as people we are busier than ever, one of the things to suffer the most in our modern lifestyle is nutrition. We are bombarded with quick fixes and convenience food that takes the preparation time out of our meal times but hands us additive riddled and nutritionally inferior energy and building blocks to our body. We are what we eat, so what are we if we eat crap?
Taking time to make what you eat a priority can change your life. Take a leaf out of the Skyrim native’s diet and eat clean (unprocessed) meals made up of organic vegetables and organic traditionally reared meat/protein to fuel your body, build muscle, and get the right nutrients for balance and homeostasis. Making this sort of change a habit will help point you in the direction of a body that is lean, strong, and capable of slaying dragons if only they were real.
Eat like a hero to become one and do not become some kind of ironic paradox like the people who are too busy playing Skyrim to cook a decent meal and who only take a timeout to put a pizza in a microwave. A computer game character should not have a better diet than you.
Sleeping brings a resting bonus
Fighting dragons is tiring work. You have to trek halfway across Skyrim to the mountain they are currently roosted on, climb up to the top of it and then engage in combat with a bad tempered, flame breathing, leviathan. Not to forget any bandits, trolls, giants or angry bears that you may bump into on the way there and back again. You can bet your hero will need a bottle of mead, a venison chop, and most of all a good sleep after all that.
Although sleeping is not necessarily essential to your hero during the gameplay of Skyrim, it does offer some bonuses for doing so. You can find beds at campsites, shacks, fortresses, dungeons, inns and taverns, faction headquarters, and of course any property you own. If you sleep in a normal bed then your character will get a 5% bonus to how quickly they level up on skills, if you sleep in a bed you own then your character will get a 10% bonus to how quickly their skills level up. In a world as tough and demanding as Tamriel, every little advantage you can get to your advancement is worth grabbing with both hands. Now, sleeping might not be essential to the Dragonborn but it is a basic need of you and me. During sleep your body repairs itself from the rigors of everyday life, particularly vital if you are training and working out. Your brain also undergoes essential maintenance during sleep, not just repair but also the filing away of the day’s events and the categorization of knowledge and skills learned during the day.
Sleep can be seen as having 4 stages. Stage 1 is the transition from being awake to being asleep, your body and mind switching off the various functions needed to drift off. Stage 2 and stage 3 can be viewed as transitional stages, highways on the journey from Stage 1 all the way to Stage 4.
Stage 4 is the deepest part of sleep and coincides with the release of Human growth hormone and so subsequently it is this deep sleep that growth and repair of the body happens.
Understanding the Sleep Cycle
Having worked your way from Stage 1 to Stage 4 your sleep cycle now works backwards from Stage 4 to around halfway through Stage 1, it is at this point that REM (rapid eye movement) sleep happens. During REM it is believed that the areas of the brain associated with learning are stimulated, this is vital to your development as a human being in regards to learning new skills and your memory. The whole cycle from Stage 1 to 4 to REM sleep takes roughly 90 to 110 minutes, and then is repeated for as long as you are asleep. 8 hours sleep is viewed as being the optimal amount of sleep for a healthy and active adult, allowing adequate time spent in both the REM and Deep Sleep zones.
Lack of quality sleep can lead to all sorts negative side effects ranging from irritability, increased cortisol production (a catabolic hormone which uses your muscle tissue as an energy source by breaking it down), poor memory, and in prolonged cases even Stroke. This is just a small list of the debilitating side effects of poor sleeping habits, whole articles could be dedicated to this subject alone.
Start looking at sleep as an essential part of your lifestyle; as essential as what you eat, how you train, and how you act. It will make you stronger; it will make you better and will give you the edge to level up in the real world.
If you want to increase your chances of getting a good and restful sleep then try getting into these habits:
- Avoid using bright screens in the hours directly before bed (TV, Laptop, Smartphone etc.).
- Try having a warm/hot bath in the hour before going to sleep to help relax you.
- Help your mind relax by reading before bed.
- Avoid food that may stimulate you before bed (simple carbs, sugars).
- Avoid caffeine in the 6 hours before sleeping.
- Avoid alcohol and nicotine (they disrupt sleeping patterns and prevent you getting into deep sleep).
- Try a supplement like ZMA around 30 minutes before you go to sleep (Magnesium is an essential chemical needed for facilitating restful sleep).
You have the potential for great power, use it wisely
You have put your time and work into the advancement of your hero from a prisoner in rags to a hero of a whole country, Thane of many holds, Slayer of dragons and bane to all that is evil. They have the power to control the very weather with their voice and tear asunder any opponent with one deft swing of their chosen weapon. Or perhaps this is not the case?
Maybe you have took your character down a dark road of worshipping Daedra, pick-pocketing theft and dark assassination plots – where their powers have been used for ill-gotten gains and the commanding of fear rather than the respect that comes with hero worship.
This sort of twist is often a welcome addition to gameplay and can be viewed as a cathartic outlet for the Jungian arch-type of the shadow nature that is within us all or just as a fun way of passing the time. Either way, this sort of behavior taking place within the confines of a computer based realm can be waved off as no harm, no foul – so fill your boots.
Put Your Gifts to Use
However, in the real world a miss using of the power you have and the gifts that belong to you comes with great consequence. With great power comes great responsibility. You can go on your own journey from being under-confident and with potential locked inside of you behind the bars of insecurity and self-doubt to being confident and at peace with yourself while you climb to glorious heights of personal success and advancement that you may have only dreamed of.
You can go on this journey with a pure heart and a hard work ethic, treating those around you with compassion; or you can step on whoever you meet on your path with a closed heart and selfish intentions as you think only of your own advancement by any means necessary. We at Confitdent encourage you to choose the former, live life as if you were a knight or hero and provide a shining light and example for those around you in a world that already has enough shadow in it.
Get the body you want through hard work and dedication, not from a syringe. If someone looks up to you and needs your time then find some for them and don’t push them away. Get that promotion at work from your own enterprises and displaying your good points, not by trying to bring your colleagues down by pointing out there shortcomings. If you with a lady then be the man she deserves, don’t play her or disrespect her or cheat on her. Choose the light, choose what is right; because the world is filled with metaphorical dragons and the world needs its champions.
Live like a real life Dragonborn.