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Most people agree that the FD Lifestyle philosophy sounds appealing, but they have no idea where to start. This post will explain to you how to begin your quest of greatness and fulfillment. Each step isn’t very easy (especially when it deals with understanding yourself better), but nor is playing a game the first time eh? 
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First and foremost, in anything, you need to figure out what kind of game you are playing. What are your life goals, what are you passionate about, and what do you want to achieve? Are you playing a game where you try to make an impact on this world by utilizing your skills and resources around you to solve world problems? Are you playing a game on reaching the top of your organization in the shortest amount of time, try to accumulate as much money(points) as possible, or try to pick up as many girls as you can?
You have to think very carefully on what you care about and what accomplishments would make your life meaningful. Choose a game that you will feel worth it when at the end of the day (or your life), you will feel good because you accomplished meaningful things and have beaten the game with a high score.
Once you have identified the game you are going to play, you need to figure out what role you will play and what are the skill sets or resources you must have. Lets take my Game of trying to make as big of an impact in this world as possible as an example. Once I have determined that my end goal is impact, I need to figure out what is the best way to get to that goal.
That’s when you look at your “initial stats.” What are you innately better than the people you grew up with? Were you always quick with math? Were you the sociable leader? Were you more creative than your peers? I turn out to be better at creating connections in my head, establishing deep and meaningful relationships fast, and analytically creating systems that make things better. I am also extremely emotionally stable and can stand high stress.
Finding your initial stats is actually something extremely difficult to do, but you can only do it through a lot of self-exploration and TONS of trying out new challenges. Lets just say there’s no meter to tell you your stats, and you have to kill enough monsters and get hit enough times to figure out the actual numbers. Being a NPC in town doesn’t help.
After you have determined your Initial Stats, you then need to think of the occupation you want to be in. Don’t just pick something your stats point to, find something that you love doing as a lifestyle. I personally hate being a sorcerer where most of the time I’m hiding, hitting, and running, even though I could potentially become very strong with it. Sometimes the easy road is not the most fulfilling. When you think about your occupation, deciding how you can use your initial stats to beat your game (the ultimate goal) in a way you enjoy doing is key.
OK, this step takes ages, and most people never do it before their midlife crisis. But that’s why so many young people don’t know what they do, and so many older folks hate their jobs – they don’t spend enough time on this. The first build of a character usually turns out crappy unless there’s guidance.
Back to my own example, I feel that since I am good at leading and dealing with people, have a strong balance between random creativity and systematic analysis, and can stand a lot of stress and uncertainty, my occupation will be an Entrepreneur. I can create new systems to improve the world in a creative and interpersonal manner, while withstanding the stress of things-gone-wrong that a business faces all the time. My systems creation talent and my passion to help others grow also suggest a side specialization of a Consultant or Coach.
Once you have decided on the Game you are playing and your Occupation, its time to plan out a “build.” If you have done the past few steps correctly, this shouldn’t be too hard. Knowing who you are and where you want to be is far harder than how you can get there. When you envision yourself accomplishing your goals in the future, what are the skill sets you need?
Whatever the skill sets are, make sure you focus on those, and don’t spread yourself thin. Sure, you can have unrelated skills as long as you can see how they can work together (for instance, Bilingual in Chinese and English, Leadership, Finance, and Sustainability Knowledge can work out well if you plan to become a financial leader of a sustainability firm that will spread to Asia). Putting 2 skill points in sword technique, 2 points in spear technique and 2 points in axe technique does not make a strong character when you can only yield one weapon at one time.
After you know your occupation, stats and planned skill points, the only left is to build alliance and conquer smaller quests that give you experience to level up and beat the game. So holistically, to play the FD Lifestyle game well, you need to have good Occupation, Stats, Skills, Alliance, and Quests. Each of these things I will have separate blog posts to elaborate more and get you to live a fullfilling and successful life. My goal as a powercoach is to help you level up and become the strongest player on your server. I hope you find a successful and fulfilling life through the FD Lifestyle. If you have any questions or need some guidance, feel free to comment or just send me an email at yukai@fdvirtualworld.com
