Brothers. Sisters. There is one place that every gaming enthusiast (specifically Yahtzee, in my case) is striving towards. That place is greatness. I'm not just talking about your average human level greatness; I'm talking about the kind of greatness that will get you sainted, get you cast from the shackles of mundane human existence and see you rise, with the eyes of mere mortals gazing upon you with envy as you make your way to the celestial heights of paradise. It can be discouraging to learn that a very small percentage of people, I'm talking like 0.5% of people, actually achieve true greatness in their lifetime. Humans as a species are not born great, it is something we must cultivate within ourselves, put in the hours and the graft. It might take you a lifetime of trying and still not make it. It's almost enough to make you not even want to bother trying at all. But that would be a foolhardy notion, because the pursuit of greatness is an act of greatness in and of itself.
You can think of true Yahtzee greatness as like the summit of a huge mountain, higher than Fuji, even higher than Everest. The summit is there, the pride, the glory, the accomplishment IS there, if only you could get to it. Will you reach it? Probably not, but you will never know unless you take that first step on your seemingly impossible ascent up... let's call it Mount Yahtzee.
The ascent of Mount Yahtzee is treacherous, filled with pitfalls all along it's barely visible path to the summit. Some of them can send you back down the way you came, sometimes all the way back to the beginning, forcing you to retread old ground, some will leave you stranded right where you are for an indeterminate amount of time. Days, weeks, months, years; these can make your progress painfully slow. But this is one mountain where you won't freeze to death if you get stuck. Ride it out and you will find yourself moving again. Or not. The mountain requires the patience of a saint and the stubbornness of a child that doesn't want their nappy changing. The latter may not sound like a great quality, but when it comes to traversing the mount, it will hold you in good stead. You can learn a lot from toddlers. Not just in Yahtzee, but in life. They don't care what people think of them, they don't care if they smell, and, which I think is most important, they get to sleep when they want without judgement. So be more like a toddler!
After much commitment and perseverance you may eventually find yourself at the summit of Mount Yahtzee. If you do, you will have joined the elite, there are a ridiculously small amount of members in this club, members that have faced the exact same ascent and fallen into the exact same pitfalls as you. Suffice it to say you're in good company, so pour yourself a brandy and bask in the warming glow of success, you've more than earned it!
On the other hand, you may find yourself stuck on the ascent for as many years as God has seen fit to grace you with. Yes, you may very well die in the pursuit of greatness, but you won't have died specifically because of your pursuit, but simply because your clock has done ticking. But, you know what? Don't worry about it. That's 99.9999999% of us. Most will never make it to the summit. But we tried, goddammit! We tried. And, in my eyes, that makes us legends too, and the one thing you will never be able to say is that you didn't try!
Now, for those people that know me and happen to be reading this, they might at this point in time be screwing their faces up at their phone screen reading my half baked motivational waffle and be thinking "Chris? He's the one that's really gonna try and motivate us?" Let me be clear; my intentions are pure, and I do consider myself a fellow journeyman, trekking up that ascent. BUT, I can see where they're coming from. You see, I've pretty much given up on everything except family, alcohol and Yahtzee. So it's a fair question. Who the hell am I to tell anyone anything? Well, firstly, like I said, I haven't given up on Yahtzee, so I believe I know what I'm on about... mostly... secondly, you don't have to listen to me, this is just advice from a fella that believes he's picked up a few things in his time, you may agree with what I say or not. That's fine! I've never claimed to be an expert, so feel free to ignore me, these aren't rules, just a suggestion. Even I don't follow my own advice at times. But that doesn't make it invalid advice, just un-heeded.
So I suppose the take home message, if you wish to accept it, is get yourself on that journey towards greatness, in whatever you endeavour to do, whether you think you can make it or not. Traversing the mount makes you great, in the human sense of the word, reaching the summit makes you great in the biblical sense of the word. So start trekking! And if it's Mount Yahtzee you've chosen to tackle, perhaps you'll see me along the way, do stop and say hello...
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