Pass V 7-key

One of my goals for this year is “Pass V 7-key”. V is a particularly difficult song on Beatmania (it’s a remix of Winter by Vivaldi), and 7-key is the “non-easy” mode. I’ve been trying to pass V 7-key for years — I’ve gotten as close as 54% or somesuch (you need 80% to pass), but haven’t practiced enough to do it. I chose to make it one of my goals, since I had just gotten IIDX Red and expected to be playing a lot anyway.

One day as I was thinking about what I wanted to do, I decided to play Beatmania. “Not only is it fun,” I thought, “but I’ll be getting closer to accomplishing one of my goals!”

A lightbulb went on.

I had transformed something from simply fun to fun and fulfilling simply by adding it to a list of goals. Whoa! Would that work for other things that we currently find fun and unfulfilling? Things that are enjoyable and necessary, but leave a slight guilty aftertaste for not doing anything “productive”?

The answer was yes.

We talked about this and decided to add a few additional goals to our list. For example:

• spend quality time together
• get enough down time

And now, when we’re relaxing together or having down time, we’re also accomplishing one of our goals for the year! It’s pretty amazing!