Sometimes, it can feel like a struggle to gain the upper hand.


This becomes especially difficult when one no longer has any hands

I recently wrote about “What is Playing?”, and I used the phrase “proponent of salvaging some value from any given situation”, and while it can feel impossible to keep a level head and avoid panicking when chaos is erupting, I think there remains a lot of insight to be mined from this metaphorical repository of sentiment.

Which is why my words of wisdom today are “Mastering Disadvantage”, as I think the phrase holds key perspective in dealing with a tough every day scenario. Whether it be surmounting a challenge in a video game, dealing with a situation at work that seems taxing, or just having a rough time with interpersonal issues, take a moment to stop for a second and think to yourself “what’s my disadvantage here, and how can I harness a sense of mastery by turning it against itself, or using the very thing empowering it for benefit?”.

I think the moment we are all able to question where the problem lies, and what challenge we are facing, we can invert our own thinking in the moment, see around our owner corner, as Nietzsche says, and start to understand how to surmount the metaphysical challenge at play, regaining a sense of control in the process.. Being able to turn the tables, by realizing where the flaw lies, or what the fundamental challenge is confronting us, we may be able to gain some valuable insight in how to master our own moments, however disadvantaged, finding a gratifying conclusion in the process, or at least discovering a way through the difficulty with new insight intact. One can then thusly salvage some value from the whole debacle and posses a new found sense of self, getting further in our methodology of discovering the most idealized version of the us we want to be.

Take care of yourself, and others.

~Pashford