Leveling up in 2023

Why I’m doing this

I need to maximize the things in my life that make me happy. Quality time with my family. Learning new things. Being creative. Being outdoors. Trying new things. And running. 

So to help me with this focus, I’m going to spend the remainder of the year attempting to level up. In the mold of an Elden Ring character, I’m going to focus my efforts in eight different categories, completing (or failing) habits each day to increment (or decrement) my scores. 

So anyway, I’ve tried to map the various Elden Ring stats to the areas in my life I’d like to focus on, plus an area (as we’ll discuss in a bit), that allows for some fun flexibility. Everyday, I’ll take stock of what I was able to accomplish (or didn’t, as it will sometimes be), and I’ll update my score in each category and post them here as an accountability step.

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The categories

I suppose before I list the categories and how they’ll map to my daily life, a quick note: there’s chance I’ll update these as we go along to better match with my own reality. I’ll leave the original category definitions below for posterity, and will be sure to post updates as they should happen.

VIGOR (HP): In the game, this is a measure of how much health (Health Points) you have, so it only makes sense for that to align to my actual life. I’ll be using this as a general gauge of how ‘healthy’ I lived that day in terms of did my eating align with my needs for the day, did I take time to do something to manage stress, did I do a little stretching, and so on. This is probably one of the more squishy categories, since it’s more qualitative (at least to start). 

MIND (FP): In the game, FP are focus points that allow you to cast spells or trigger certain skills. I know I find it hard to focus when I’m sleepy, so I think this category aligns neatly here. And I have a built-in cheat: my wife, Connie. She’s excellent and ensuring she gets an appropriate amount of rest, so I’ll just peg this to when she goes to bed. I’ll get +1 for going to bed with her, or -1 if I don’t. UPDATE 2/27/23: I’m allowed one ‘skip’ day per week, with a resulting zero points on the day.

Endurance: Seeing as how running is a thing that makes me happy, and it’s all about having endurance, seems fitting it goes here. Add a point if I ran at least a mile. Zero points if I skipped a day, but had run the day prior. Lose a point if I skip a day and it’s the second skipped day (or more) in a row. UPDATE 2/27/23: The goal is to run four endurance runs a week. One point for a run. Zero points for not running but still able to meet the weekly goal. Negative point for not running and not able to meet the weekly goal.

Strength: If you’re to guess doing some sort of workout, yeah – you’re right. I’m not as big into lifting weights or doing speed work, but realize it benefits my running by making me faster (in theory, anyway) and less susceptible to injury. One point for a workout, zero if no workout and I’ve done one within the previous two days (i.e., I need to do one of these every three days.), lose a point if it’s been three days since my last workout and I skip. UPDATE 2/27/23: The goal is to run two speed runs and/or strength workouts a week. One point for a workout. Zero points for not working out but still able to meet the weekly goal. Negative point for not working out and not able to meet the weekly goal.

Dexterity: OK, enough with the physical stats. I know technically dexterity is a physical one in the game, but for my purposes, we’ll focus on mental dexterity – specifically creativity. Basically, undertake a creative endeavor for a reasonable amount of time each day. Whether that’s practicing an instrument, building something in the shop, designing something to 3D print, whatever. Simple scoring; one for doing it, negative one for not.

Faith: I’m not religious, so this category’s name is misplaced, so I’ll use this for my relationships with family, friends, colleagues – really anyone. This is a subjective category: if I was kind, patient and present with people, +1. If I was a jerk, -1. A little of both nets me zero points on the day.

Arcane: Yeah, so I don’t know if I’d call this an ‘arcane’ category so much as one I’ll switch up to have a different set of goals each month. Since I’ve got a week left in February, I’m going to focus on NOT eating out for lunch. I get +1 for watching at home, -1 for eating out. On March 1st, and the first of each month thereafter, I’ll have a new Arcane stat to focus on.

So, if you prefer things in chart form:

STAT	-1	0	+1
HP (General Health)	Generally unhealthy day	Somewhere in between	Generally health day
FP (Sleep)	Same bedtime as Connie		Bedtime after Connie
Endurance (Running)	2nd+ missed day in row	Missed Day	Ran at least a mile
Strength (Speed/Strength)	3rd+ missed day in a row	1st or 2nd missed day	Speed or Strength Workout
Dexterity (Creativity)	Nothing Creative		Did Something Creative
Intelligence (Learn New Things)	Didn’t Learn Anything		Learned Something
Faith (Interpersonal Relationships)	Generally a jerk	Generally a complicated person, OK?
Arcane (Monthly Challenge)	Feb: Went out to eat		Did not go out to eat

I’ll start at 0 points for each category, and see how high we can make each go. Then maybe next year I can compete with myself to score more points. First check in is tomorrow!