Eight years ago today, it was a 21 July in Plzen. On a Saturday break from my TEFL studies, I returned from a tram ride into town to purchase a Plzeň-to-Prague train ticket for the next Saturday. While amidst the rigors of the program and my own discipline of fasting on just Czech green tea and perlivá voda, I kept my mind on what lay ahead. Maybe that approach has cursed me; maybe it has empowered me. Nevertheless, it has been my defining characteristic, not envisioning the future of others' expectations, but what I wanted to accomplish. Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like if I was like everybody else, but, thought experiments aside, would "I” exist?

I considered posting the picture of that July 21, when I had turned 34 earlier that month alone in that communist-era dorm. It was the me without today's silver wisps, but the forgotten dark chest hair I once had and a new crop of beard with no gray. I suppose it is easy to romanticize that time, but I remember my mind then as I see it now—I'm no different. Clearly, the situation and the context contrasts wildly…but, hasn't that been the bassline of my entire adult life?

In my own preparation for 2021, specifically in the realm of physical fitness (though there's wider potential), I'm applying something in which I've been intrigued with for a long time, something I wanted to figure out back in 2005, but never got around to anything substantial: virtual gamification for real-world targets. Back then, of course, I wanted to figure out how I could learn from my zeal for World of Warcraft and applying them to activities that provide greater value—not that a night of pizza, beer, and adventuring across Azeroth didn't captivate; I just wanted to apply something that works in one arena to another context. But, I never did anything with it.

Today, I ran across Habitica and it does just that, in a fun, 2D RPG graphical setting. It basically lays out three things for advancement for your character whom is powered and equipped by the following:

• Positive and negative things you do daily
• Daily tasks
• A To-Do list

For example with my daily task for Mondays, I could just write, "do my back resistance routine,” but, in the spirit of RPG, I wrote:

Weave the Cloak of Cataclysmic Power.

I find that a little more inspirational.

For a To-Do example, sure, I could say, "write a blog post,” but instead, I chose,

Enchant the 42nd Inscription

And finally, for the daily + / – bit, I applied it toward food:

Eat freely of the Hunter's Feast // Eat of the Corrupted Carb

Sure, I can lower my shoulder and get real-world objectives completed; however, dancing the dance of metaphors has always been a strength of mine—why not have fun with it? And you never can go wrong with planning your day instead of just reacting to your day.