Inversion is an idea I have been made aware of for quite some time. It wasn’t until this year, though, that this mental model “clicked” for me and I started to see it everywhere. This post is about my new-found way of leveraging it for persevering through hardship.

Playing on “hard” is my reference to going through a difficult period of or having an altogether difficult life. If the metaphor is not obvious, it relates to computer games. In the past (think Starcraft, Half-Life), one could play the game at varying degrees of difficulty. There were at least three of them and, regardless of the way they were named, they represented “easy”, “medium” and “hard”. With the increase of the difficulty, the enemies became harder to defeat and resources less abundant. Games on “hard” became less of an amusement and more like a challenge. They required conditioning (i.e. having played for long periods of time), focus and determination (i.e. willingness to fail continuously, learning something in the process and slowly adjusting the strategy adopted).

With age the possibilities of having problems in one’s life slowly increase. There can be stretches were the feeling of an endless fight with undefeatable foes becomes the norm. For example, being ill, while having a newborn while there’s COVID everywhere while your apartment building is under renovation. In the times like these, positive outlook is the hardest to achieve, yet most effective way to feel better. To do that, one needs to invert.

So what is hardship if not playing (the game of life) on “hard”? Obviously, one would say. I argue that it isn’t. For if it was, then there wouldn’t be any complaints regarding the difficulties one faces. They would just be thought of as part of the game. Yet many, including myself, prefer to be angry at the world, desperate because of their cruel faith, or envious of those that don’t share their circumstances.

It must be stated that the game of life is mostly non-deterministic. That is, it’s hard to predict the weather or how two people’s bodies react to the same decease. However, the perception of those events is totally in the control of those observing them. That’s were playing on “hard” comes in. Knowing that hardship (i.e. stress) is inevitable (and also needed for positive adaptation) and framing the problem from the perspective of doing something difficult (possibly not by choice), is rewarding, in my opinion.

Playing on “hard” requires adaptation due to the constant change in the environment. Rooms with fixed temperature, stocked fridge, two cars per family, sedentary lifestyle, prepared food at work, take away at home. Playing on “hard” is not a social norm right now.

Yet, it is a way of life for some.