Kids and video games …

Have you ever played a computer game against a child?

Have you ever had that amazing experience whereby you either sit and wait for half an hour, while they take their turn to kill the bad guys, then when it comes to your turn, you have just looked up after working out how to use the controller and you have been shot or bombed by the next tank or villain to come out of the screen from some obscure location and you are ready to sit back on the couch for your next half hour of watching your child take on the next round of baddies.

By now, you are starting to think about all of the other things that you could be doing at the moment, but you know that your parently duties requires that you site through an experience that makes no sense and seems to be unplayable if you are over the age of 10.

And, you get to look forward to doing it all again next Saturday afternoon.

So, what can we learn from this experience? Good question.

Patience, I hear you say. Absolutely. But, what about congruence? Even commitment and learning.

Congruence is when your actions demonstrate your beliefs. Whilst you are playing the ‘shoot em all dead as quick as you can’, you are being present, and you are demonstrating what is important in your life – time with your kids (that is, if you can maintain your interest and your good humour for a period of time – my guess is that you can).

Commitment is what you show by trying again and again to shoot those weird looking aliens, with even weirder looking guns on even weirder still planets or spaceships. Eventually, you get there, and work it out. And, you let the whole street know wish your excitement (or at least, I do).

Then, believe it or not, you will learn something. Not only will you learn about the game, but the quality time spent with your child will help you get to know just that little bit more about them.

A win win scenario, I would think (but this is really not about computer games).

Just think, when might you need the same sort of persistence, congruence, commitment and learning in your business or work life. Then think how well you apply what you learnt last Saturday afternoon.