Do you feel stuck, bored or restless in life? Maybe you’re ready to start a side quest. In video games, it is a quest that deviates from the main story and helps build the history of the world. In real life, it is an activity that serves no other purpose than to bring more fantasy to your daily life. Westend61/Getty Images hide title toggle title Westend61/Getty Images Don’t miss a single episode of the Life Kit podcast. Follow us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. When was the last time you did something just for fun? Like skipping down the sidewalk, rollerblading, or learning a new language without the pressure to speak fluently? In other words, when was the last time you did a side quest? The term comes from video games. It’s a quest that deviates from the main story, helping to build the world and adding flavor to the experience. But in real life, it is an activity that has no other purpose than to bring more fantasy and exploration to your daily life. And it’s a great way to practice the game and open up new possibilities, especially if you’re feeling stuck, tense, or restless. “Just like in the world of video games, it strengthens the main mission. It gives it more nuance or a new dimension or highlights a side of yourself that you convinced yourself you couldn’t. [be]” says Kyra Gaunt, ethnomusicologist and author of The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes From Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop. Research has shown that play can help us adapt to difficult circumstances, practice survival skills, problem-solve, and collaborate. “Doing something you haven’t done before will open up the different neural networks in your brain,” says Gaunt. “You’ll have this sense of wonder and awe.” Are you ready to find your side quest? Come on. Think about how you liked to play when you played games. you were a kid. This is a good tip to start with, said Jeff Harry, a public speaker who teaches workshops on the importance of play, in an interview in 2023. Did you really like Lego? Catching fireflies? See how far you could catapult off the swing? So, think about how to incorporate that form of play into your life now, maybe you could take a test to discover your favorite activities when. If you were a child, take this quiz to find your play style. It uses thousands of personal play stories collected by the National Institute for Play and psychiatrist and play researcher Stuart Brown. The idea is to find the type of play activity that naturally “gives you a sense of joy, engagement, and sustained motivation,” Brown told Life Kit in 2023. In the quiz, you may discover that you are a “dreamer,” someone who finds play in fantasy or alternative worlds, or an “organizer,” someone who likes it. create order by organizing things or connecting people. Then, see if your results generate ideas for side quests. Choose something you don’t know how to do. You can also make your side quest something totally different from what you’re normally drawn to. [they] “I don’t know how to do it,” Gaunt says. A couple of summers ago, he took a drawing class. “There was a figure [model] I was supposed to draw, and I said, ‘I can’t draw,'” she says. The instructor told her to let her hand “follow her vision.” She took the advice to heart and found she could apply it to other areas of her life. “The next day, writing was easier. “My writing was better,” he says. So stay open to new activities that intrigue you; you never know how it will affect your main mission. When in doubt, don’t overthink it. If you still don’t know what your side mission should be or if you feel too tired or busy to think about something, pause, listen and follow your impulses, says Sahara Moné, curator of Let’s Play NYC, a community group that prioritizes play. Maybe you’ve wanted to take an acting class since you graduated college and told yourself that this is the year you’ll do it “That’s a push,” he says. “Continue your search with the acronym ARTSN. Hopefully by now you’ve come up with some ideas for side quests. A: Revealing, one. activity that teaches you something new about yourself. T: Timed, an activity that has a starting and ending point. S: Specific, an activity that has a clear goal. N: Notice, as in “Notice how you feel after participating” in the side quest, says Gaunt. Don’t forget to have fun. How did you improve your top search? Send your story to LifeKit@npr.org with your full name and a photo, and we may include an excerpt on NPR.org. This story was edited by Meghan Keane. Listen to Life Kit on Apple Podcasts and subscribe to our newsletter. Follow us on Instagram: @nprlifekit.
