I am rediscovering my passion for Gaming after 2 years, and you should revisit yours too.

When we aren’t doing what we were asked to or supposed to, what do we turn to? Some of us turn to books, some to nature, some to the arts, and the list goes on. That one thing you are just thinking of right now (or maybe now, is it?) is YOUR own personal passion. Some of us are lucky enough to turn passions into full-time careers, while some find a balance and compartmentalize their skills and interests. Yet neither cohorts are as unfortunate as those who don’t find a passion or lose the ability to pursue it.

Over the years, I lost touch with what I could define as a two-decade long love for gaming. It’s not that I was winning E-Sports tournaments before, I was a “casual” who used games as a form of recreation. Yet I saw gaming as a medium to tell stories uniquely. Stories where we could participate actively, feel unique emotions as the protagonist, and in some cases, define our own ending. With a blossoming career in product management and a decision to pursue an MBA alongside a full-time job, gaming soon became less than an afterthought. It took introspection driven by 2020’s social seclusion for me to see what was missing.

Ikigai is a concept that connects work to fulfillment and happiness. And while we tend to focus on our careers a lot, that which is worthwhile might be the most overlooked.

That is when I setup my console and started playing over weekends. Weekends became fun, meaningful, and different from the weekdays. This is not just about why gaming is great, it’s about how you can find more energy if you find what you love and choose to pursue it. That is what I recommend to everyone now, find who you are outside of work, and do something to be better at it.

Taking my own advice, I will align my professional experiences when I experience games as a product.

To lead by example, this is not only my return to gaming, but a debut into (amateur) game production. Of course, I would love to share and discuss what I learn along the way.

Disclaimer — I work as a Product Manager for Microsoft. Intend to use Medium as a medium (get it?) to share personal opinions and learning experiences.