← Notes

Great things don't happen by accident

Over the course of my life, the main thing I’ve realised is that to achieve great things, it doesn’t usually happen on some random occasion. You need something far out ahead of you. A longer-term vision and goal that you’re not quite at yet, but you know you’ll get there. It’s happened in a lot of instances in my life.

Take RuneScape. When I was dedicating all my time to Old School RuneScape and becoming the best PKer (player killer) on there, I’d basically play every single day, 16+ hours a day, non-stop. At first I was really bad. I was losing all the time, getting destroyed by the other players. So I’d study and watch what they were doing, and I’d adapt and change my play style. I upgraded my peripherals, my keyboard, my mouse. I changed my DPI, learned the tricks from the best players, watched them on YouTube and on Twitch streams. It was a never-ending process.

What really led to the big breakthrough was becoming a content creator and making videos of myself in the game. Playing, showing my kills, putting out content regularly. It let me gauge and track my progress, people were tuning in, and it became a bit of a thing. I became a fairly well-known name in the space under the alias BZR. It led to a lot of opportunities, and in the end I’d say I became the best hybrid PKer in the Oceania region. I could never really gauge myself against everyone because of the ping differences across the world, but yeah, that was a multi-year goal and I got really damn good at the game.

Obviously it fizzled out later when I got into programming and software. I ended up making my own AI bot to beat myself, and then I never really returned. This was years ago, when I was first learning to code, way before ChatGPT or any of the AI tools were out. But the moral of the story is you need direction, and having a goal out in front of you is what gives you that. You can apply it to pretty much anything in life.

Say you’re into the gym like I am. If you want to lift a certain number, let’s say deadlift 300kg, which is one of my current long-term goals and one I’ll definitely hit one day. That’s the goal. From there you break it down and work out how the hell you’re going to get there.

Here’s how I think about it:

  1. A specific outcome. You need to know exactly what you’re aiming for, like the 300kg deadlift.

  2. A why. What’s the importance to you? Everyone’s called to do different stuff. We’re not all the same, we’ve got different journeys and pathways, and you need to find what really resonates with you. I’ll tell you right now, if something gets difficult, you get injured or hit some roadblocks, and you’re not really about it, you’ll quit. You’ll stop. So that reason has to be crystal clear and embedded into your system, your body and your mind.

  3. A way to track it. For that deadlift, you need to be training it at least once or twice a week and progressing over time. Overload. Do more than last week, run variations, train your weak points. That’s your measurable target. Deadlines are good too.

  4. Something to test yourself against. Putting yourself in environments where you compete against people who might be better than you is honestly the way to become the best version of yourself. Actually showing up and performing under pressure. The deadline can vary, but it’s good to have one you’re aiming for, because it gives you that sense of urgency. (Competitions are probably a whole post on their own.)

  5. Daily actions. To actually get there, you need actions you’re taking every day. With the gaming, if I wanted to be the best PKer in RuneScape, I had to play every single day, study, learn, watch my footage back, improve, get my clicks more accurate, and learn all the F keys and keybinds. Basically dedicate your entire life to it.

That’s what it takes.