Every morning, along with my family, I play a series of word games on the NYTimes app. While I’ve opted out of Wordle, I still enjoy Connections, Strands, and Spelling Bee.
Each game, in my view, is a way of exercising my brain. Spelling Bee, if you’re not familiar, requires the player to make as many words as possible from the 7 letters provided, with the middle letter being mandatory.
There are various markers of “success,” starting with Beginner and culminating with Genius. The other day, I really worked my brain trying to find suitable words and, just 3 points away from “Amazing,” I stopped because I started to get frustrated and even inched toward self-criticism.
I think life is like that. We strive for unattainable perfection. We get all riled up when we don’t achieve it, seeing ourselves as “less than” on a scale devised by others, or perhaps worse, by our own beliefs.
We are so accustomed to measuring ourselves—our worth, our success—that we can easily lose sight of what’s really important. Sure, brain stimulation is good. Beating yourself up is not so good.
Focus on what’s truly important: what fills you, what interests you, what makes you a better human, and, most of all, what brings joy to yourself and others. Being 3 points from amazing is not so bad!
