If you are looking for a life coach look no further than the computer game hero Super Mario. I am serious and I will tell you why.
I am in Venezuela with my wife and twin 8 month olds staying at my wife’s parents farm. There internet connection is so slow it is almost unusable. So, for now I have put on the backburner all of the marketing of my album and the running of my webportal. This has been a blessing in disguise because it means I have just been able to spend lots of time with the babies, write songs and walk in the beautiful natural surroundings here in the Andes.
A few weeks ago, my sister-in-law’s boyfriend installed a Nintendo 64 emulator on the laptop here that allows you to play all the old Nintendo 64 games on PC. He started playing “Super Mario 64″, initially I took the piss out of him but inevitably I got drawn in and then well and truly hooked. Initially I felt like I was wasting time, that I should be doing something more constructive, but I was enjoying myself. My wife even said to me “I am glad you are allowing yourself to play video games”.
For those not familiar with Super Mario 64 it basically goes like this. Mario enters a big castle and in the castle are lots of doors. The doors lead to rooms or hallways that lead to other rooms etc. In the rooms there are paintings of various things and if Mario jumps into a painting he enters a “World”. There are snow worlds, lava worlds, mountain worlds, cloud worlds and much more.
In each world you have to find the big yellow stars. Some stars are really easy to get and they literally fall into Super Mario’s lap. Some stars are really difficult to get, sometimes near impossible until with alot of attempts and trying you get the star. There are normally about 5 or 6 stars in each “World”. When Super Mario has collected 30 stars he gets to open a big door with a big yellow star on it that leads to other rooms and “worlds” and another big door that requires 50 stars to open. It goes on and on until he gets all the stars and gets through all the doors to his GOAL which is to rescue his princess.
After playing Super Mario for a few days, the amazing teachings of this game dawned on me.
I thought about my goal which is for my music to reach millions all over the world and to be a globally successful recording artist.
And then I thought If I just do one or two important things toward my goal each day e.g. Send an album out for review, write a song, play a gig and collect names for my mailing list etc…Each thing I do is like Mario when he gets one his big yellow stars. So if I just get 1 or 2 or even 3 stars a day, pretty soon a door will open. Then if I press on and get even more stars, pretty soon another door will open. For some stars I will have to work hard, but the some will be brought to me magically by synchronicity or “coincidence” or whatever you want to call it according to your beliefs. If I keep doing this and don’t give up then success is assured. I am sure to reach my goal just as Super Mario is sure to rescue the princess if he keeps going.
The answers to life and powerful revelations can sometimes be found in the most unlikely things! Seems not all computer games are bad for our kids.