Lately, I've been playing an online card-based game quite a bit. I enjoy the strategic challenge it offers me, and honestly, it's a way to pass the time. I am making slow-but steady progress through the story portion of the game, and some weeks ago, I unlocked access to a particular challenge. Now, I've been having trouble completing this challenge (I can do it, but it takes a long time - long enough that the costs outweigh the gains), so I did a little research (I checked the wiki for the game) to see if anyone had any insight as to how to overcome these adversaries and adversities.
The recommended course of action to beat this challenge, was to have in play a card with a specific ability (one which restores health, and prevents one-hit-kills [that second part is key]). I did some more research; out of 415 cards in the game, only 11 have the ability I was looking for. I did some calculations. (I find that being able to quantify these kinds of dilemmas makes them seem less intimidating; also I wanted to be [at least trying] to use my available/obtainable resources in a [semi-]efficient manner.)
Having done the calculations, I came to the conclusion that a specific booster pack would have the best chances of paying dividends (of having one of the eleven cards I had my eyes on [I'm too desperate to be picky at this point]). Then I read the text regarding the pack content a little more carefully; turns out the pack I was working on can have cards from earlier packs inside it in addition to the cards from that expansion. With this new information, I did some recalculating, and found that instead of about 13%, the chance of the card (there's eleven total, but they're scattered across several booster packs; an individual pack may only have one or two) I was looking for showing up was about 3%.
I was...mildly dismayed by this new value. Looking at it, and thinking about what it meant, I thought it would be best if I stepped back, and took stock of the situation. Backing away, I pointed out to myself that I don't need to do this right away. The only one who set a time limit was me, and I am free to adjust that limit (and readjust, or just do away with it entirely). With that in mind, I told myself that I could take as long as I needed to to find what I was looking for.
What followed was an almost overwhelming feeling of relief.
This is not the first time I've done this: I set some challenge for myself, panic when I realize it isn't going nearly as well/easily as I'd thought originally, take a moment to step back, give the situation some rational thought, realize that if I continue in this manner I will be rendered a nervous wreck (and probably fail anyway), and finally I release myself from the challenge I had issued.
It's a peculiar thing - realizing I was setting myself up for failure. It's certainly not easy to admit to myself (much less to anyone else). But that's just something we have to learn in life - what are our limitations, and how to accept them. (Weight-training is a prime example of this; if you can't do it, you can't do it, and stop trying to do it if you can't do it [because you can really, really hurt yourself badly if you keep trying to do something your not ready for yet].) Of course, that leads us to what is probably the biggest problem: knowing what our limitations are. Certainly, in some cases, repeated exposure can extend our limits. Unfortunately, most times, we only really know what our limits are when we've already gone too far.
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