How To Get Into The Top 1% Of The World At Anything
In November of 2017, I FINALLY accomplished something that I’d been working towards for many months..
I GOT INTO THE TOP 1% OF THE WORLD IN CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE REMASTERED.
I bet you were expecting me to tell you the same old story of how I finallymonetized my blog that month. No no, people, this one is about Call of Duty.
I know. Putting Call of Duty and success in the same sentence is kind of blasphemous, but hear me out for a second.
It turns out my daily routine of playing Call of Duty online for 30 minutes has reaped some benefits.
On the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remasteredleaderboard I am in the top 1 percent in the world.
There’s 4+ million players in total. I am in the top 40,000. It makes sense, since I’ve played for 9 days, 5 hours, and 19 minutes (in total hours of play time).
I know I’ve been getting good, but I just play for fun! It’s not like I’m staying up all night playing the game.
Trust me, after a day of writing three blog posts and responding to dozens of emails, a fast game of COD gets my juices flowing again.
I started to realize the reasons for my success in Call of Duty can surprisingly be translated into real life, too. Let me show you how.
Put The Time In
I play Call of Duty for at least thirty minutes every day. It’s fun for me. It’s fun because I’ve gotten good at it. I hardly ever play for more than one hour, though.
When you put in 30 minutes — 1 hour every day, that adds up over time, right?
When I started playing I was absymal. The only reason I like playing MW Remastered is because it reminds me of the good ol’ days back in 2007.
Trust me when I say I am NOT a video game guy.
Which is what makes this case so interesting. I went from getting shot in the back 20 times a game to slicing clean headshots across the map while toggling in and out of prone.
I got good.
*CANYOUFEELTHEARROGANCE*
Time does that to you. You know what else time does to you? It gets you familiar.
Familiarity Beats Skill
The more time you spend, the more you understand the game itself. The same goes for writing. The more time I spent on WordPress, here on Medium, or on social media has inevitably taught me more about these platforms. It’s just a matter of time!
For instance, there’s a handful of maps on Call of Duty that I’m really good on. It’s because I’ve gotten familiar with them. I know where the best sniper spots are. I know the spots where the enemy team funnels out of like a bunch of sewer rats.
Many times I’m just waiting there for them staring down the scope.
Learn From Others
Ever heard of the killcam? For those not familiar, whenever you get shot in the back (happens a lot), COD shows you the perspective of the other person killing you as you re-spawn. As a sniper, this benefits me because I can see where other players just shot me from.
Now I know where a good spot to shoot is.
I won’t lie I’ve jacked the strategy of other players from time to time. In life, sometimes you need to stand on the shoulders of giants also.
Do The Same Things Over and Over Again
Depending on which map I’m playing, I know EXACTLY where I’m going beforehand. I call these my sniping hotspots.
If for some reason I can’t get to my spots, I’ll probably be 50 percent less successful in that game.
Success, as we all know, is a long-term target. To get 50,000 Twitter followers, you need to follow a good amount of people every single day.
To build up a good blog, you need to keep at it for a couple years.
The same is true for Call of Duty.
You need to find what works and exploit the hell out of it. And you need to continue doing that consistently to see any results.
Focus On One Ability
Without fail, I snipe every single game. I do not mess around with p-90’s or M16’s or M4 Carbons. I am not here to become a Call of Duty weapon officianado. I’m here to win and have an enjoyable 30 minutes.
The same is true in life.
Do ONE thing, and do it damn well. If you focus on ONE thing, you’ll find success so much quicker because other people are either disorganized, confused, or indifferent. They’ll try other things and give up when it gets tough, and pretty soon they haven’t really taken the proper time to master just one thing.
For me, that one thing is writing. What’s yours?
Stay Away From Your Weaknesses
There’s a few maps I suck at in Call of Duty. You know what I do? I avoid them like the plague. I do not go anywhere near them. I exit the lobby immediately. I do this for two reasons.
- I’m here to have fun. I don’t want to waste 10 minutes playing a map I hate.
- I want to maximize my time hitting people in their eyes from 200 meters away. AKA, I want to maximize my time being successful.
So many times we’re taught that we need to be a well-rounded individual. I’ve read so many books about why this is bogus. We should stick to what we’re good at and spend basically all of our time funneling our energy into that.
If you’re a blogger and social media just isn’t your strength, don’t spend so much time trying to learn!
Focus on creating bomb content. Stay in your lane. Some people are social media officianados. Some people are marketing gurus. Some people can just write up a storm. Pick one and put all of your effort into it.
I’m not saying to completely ignore social media and other forms of marketing, rather I’m just saying to play to your strengths as much as you can instead of covering the bases in regards to your weaknesses.
Were you expecting something like this? I had to write it because I think sometimes video games get a bad rap. They’re amazing tools to relax and have some fun in moderation.
Even though I’m not a hardcore gamer BY ANY STRETCH, I do love to sit down and have fun for a half-hour or two.
What about you?
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