Overview

Recently I realized I’d been spending the equivalent of a workday with my nose buried in manga and webtoons.

I wasn’t reading because every story was incredible anymore.
I was reading because I wanted to keep feeling what those stories made me feel.

I admired their discipline, courage, loyalty, and perseverance.
I celebrated their victories like they were my own.

I realized I wasn’t inspired.
I was consuming inspiration.

I wasn’t becoming the hero.
I was borrowing someone else’s journey.

Don’t Become The Character

Fiction gives us impossible abilities, but very real virtues.

It may hurt to hear, but you’ll never cultivate your way to immortality, punch through steel, or run faster than a speeding bullet.
What won’t hurt to hear is you can be just as brave as Luffy, or virtuous as Superman, as deductive as Batman, or even as easy going as Goku.

You may never fly like Superman or cultivate qi like Han Jue.

But courage isn’t fictional.
Discipline isn’t fictional.
Loyalty isn’t fictional.
Responsibility isn’t fictional.

Those traits exist in the real world, and they’re available to every one of us.

Lately I’ve been asking myself what kind of person I actually want to become.

Someone diligent enough to keep showing up.
Humble enough to keep learning.
Responsible enough to own my mistakes.
Loyal enough to show up for the people I care about.

Section 2: Translate Traits Into Actions

I had a laundry list of individual and shared traits from the practice above, from there, how do you suddenly turn your whole life around start acting like these heroes on a pedestal?
Some of these traits and changes may be straight up jarring, they could be so foreign that you don’t think it’s even possible.

So choose one, then map out how you can live that quality in your daily life.
Traits only matter if they survive contact with ordinary life.

Diligence

• Make your bed.
• Practice piano.
• Finish the workout.

Courage

• Publish the article.
• Apply for the job.
• Have the uncomfortable conversation.

Compassion

• Call your parents.
• Listen before speaking.
• Help someone without expecting anything.

It’s not easy to change your identity and embrace these new traits.

Reflection matters because it helps us ask whether our actions come from our own values or from someone else’s expectations.

Don’t let someone else’s story keep you from living your own.
You’ve already spawned into the most immersive RPG you’ll ever play.

Your Life Is Already An RPG

Life is a hardcore, first person reality simulator.
Life already has quests.

Build a business.
Learn an instrument.
Repair a relationship.
Recover from failure.

No side quests disappear because you ignored them.

We don’t hear victory music, but every difficult choice gives us experience all the same.

Stop Escaping Into Stories

Stories are incredible teachers, but they become harmful when we only consume them and never practice what they teach us.

I’d finish a chapter feeling fired up.
Then I’d open another.
Then another.
Hours would disappear.
I felt inspired…

But inspiration without action is just another form of entertainment.
When all of our inspiration stays in our imagination, we risk confusing imagined growth with lived experience.

It’s easy to get caught in the fun of a good story, but reality will always be waiting for you, so why not get back to reality with a little something more.

Back To Reality

I’ve been working on incorporating the traits I mentioned into my daily life. But that’s easier said than done.

Start small.

Pick one character.
Pick one trait.
Practice it for the next 30 days.

Don’t try to become someone else overnight.
Become a little more like the person you already admire.

Cutting back didn’t suddenly make me disciplined.
But it gave me back something I hadn’t realized I’d been giving away: time.

Time to write.
Time to learn piano.
Time to build the life I kept wishing I had while reading about someone else’s.

Eventually, you stop searching for heroes because you’ve spent enough time becoming one yourself.
For me, that character was Han Jue.
His diligence reminds me to cultivate my mind, my body, and my character every single day.

Who will you choose?

Citations