The 3 Steps To Turn Yourself From NPC to Player-1

NPC.

If you ever played a video game, you probably heard that term- NPC.

NPC stands for “Non-Player Character”, a built-in game character which is completely automatic, it has programmed responses, and it’s entire behavior is completely predictable.

NPC has no control, besides the pre-programmed actions. You can interact with it, most of the time it serves a purpose, like giving you a quest, selling you potions or just be a prop to enhance the game experience.

Recently, the term NPC became a nickname for people who lack the ability to control themselves.

They’re unable to think objectively, control their behavior, control their thoughts or emotions.

They have prejudices and opinions without a strong reasoning behind.

They act in the same predictable manner, sometimes they have certain repetitive phrases that you will hear every time you talk to them.

Those are the people who you see on the street and think to yourself “I wonder what their day looks like and if they have an inner voice?”

Like Computer Bots, you trigger them with a mouse click (in real life, just talk to them), and they generate the same response, each time.

In some cases, you will encounter some oblivion NPC, which has bizarre and strange reactions (YouTube full of those videos, check it out: oblivion npc - YouTube)

Those are NPCs.

Real life humans, that their existence as part of the simulation (Matrix) or actual players is in question. In alternative reality, they will take a Turing Test.

The key feature here is the lack of control.

Lack of control over The Body.

Lack of control over Thoughts.

Lack of control over Emotions.

Lack of control over Reactions.

The NPC is in a constant state of REACTION, it doesn’t initiate a proactive action towards life, it just drifts like a leaf, to wherever the Wind will decide to take it.

Now, at that point you’re probably questioning your existence and asking yourself: “Oh man, Am I an NPC?”

The answer is Yes and No.

We are all Bots. All of us behave in a programmed manner. We act according to the program that was written by our parents, by our friend, school, and basically, every experience that we went through in life.

Like a strange Sitcom, less the comedy. life presents us with a situation, and we act in the way we think fits right.

That thought on what fits right, is programmed.

So in that sense, we all behave in a “Click-Run” manner, a situation appears, we act as we learned.

So, why is the answer also “No”?

Great question!

The good news is, being an NPC is not an inborn trait.

Our behavior is editable. We can gain access to our own “Developer Mode” and not just read our program but also write and change it. We are sort of advanced Bots in that way.

We can gain control over our body, our thoughts and our emotions and turn ourselves from NPC into a “Player-1”.

On android phones, in order to gain access to “Developer Mode” you need to tap on the phone’s build number 7 times (In your Settings).

For us Humans it’s simply by deciding we have access to Developer Mode. It’s by telling ourselves that we can change and edit existing behavior.

When we access Developer Mode, when we decide to change ourselves, we will enter a gradual process of making more decisions that will give us control back, and backing up those decisions with real life actions.

We anchor our existence as “Player-1” by shifting the way we think and act.

“But wait Yuval, what the Hell is Player-1 anyway?”

In video games, Player-1 is the term to describe a single player, one that actually holds a controller and plays.

In Real Life it’s the same, Player-1 is someone who actually holds his (or her) controller and plays.

Holding the controller in real life means having authority over your Body, Thoughts and Emotions, which are the buttons we have to play with.

Player-1 has control over weight, physique and the different body functions (strength, stamina, mobility).

Player-1 has the control over what voices are prominent in mind, what are their words and where do they direct life to.

Player-1 has control over the emotional state, Consciously deciding how to react to different situations, whether a certain emotion is the appropriate response and what emotion to evoke in a given moment (with exciting and inhibiting emotions).

Player-1 doesn’t leave his personal state in the hands of luck or fate, he takes deliberate proactive action.

Player-1 knows that by investing energy, with the right attitude and the right plan, he can reach mastery of control over his body, mind and life.

Nobody became fit by accident. Nor rich or transcended.

Player-1 understands that, and he approaches life with the knowledge that he deserves only crops that he invested the energy to grow.

The distinction between an NPC and Player-1 comes in 3 Aspects:

• Awareness

• Consumption

• Output

In 3 Main Domains:

1. Body

2. Thoughts

3. Emotions

Awareness

The difference between Real Life NPC and Player-1 starts with the level of awareness.

Awareness of the self internal state, of Body, Thoughts and Emotions.

Awareness is Knowing what buttons you got on your controller.

Awareness is Knowing how to avoid others to press the buttons for you.

Awareness is Knowing how to press the buttons yourself.

Awareness is the ability to read your own signals clearly.

Signals come all of the time, the body signals when it needs food, water and rest. The Mind signals a need for stimulation, of different kinds, or a need for break. Emotions signal feedback on external and internal events, and whether a change is needed, or we can keep in the same manner.

Our ability to read those signals clearly and accurately is crucial in order to manipulate the internal state.

By training our awareness, we increase that ability and are able to read our own signs more efficiently. Therefore, being able to react with a better response to a certain situation and have more control over it.

To train awareness in the 3 Domains, we need to listen, without distractions or extra noise.

First, we need to open up some level of awareness, to get familiar with how increased awareness feels. We do it with deliberate practice of Meditation.

After we increase our awareness levels, we are able to do it also without the whole ritual of sitting, closing our eyes and breathing, but as a part of our daily existence.

To train our muscles we need to move, do different exercises and sweat.

To train our awareness we first need to sit still, do nothing and listen.

It will feel weird at the beginning, the natural response of the body for doing nothing will be too many thoughts on getting up, and stimulating itself.

We need to tame that beast, that’s how we take control.

The goal is to resist that bodily urge, sit still and act as the master of your own body. It’s fine that it has its own will to seek stimulation, that’s the nature of NPC, but, in order to become a Player-1 you have to be able to tell your body “Now we sit and do nothing” and get its consent.

When you are able to get your body’s agreement to sit still and do nothing, you also get the ability to command it to do something. With conscious thinking and planning, you use your mind to direct your body’s actions in a beneficial way.

You become the executive and your body turns into a disciplined worker.

With sitting and doing nothing, we dramatically decrease the amount of noise around us. With minimum distractions, we are able to listen and hear our own signals, more clearly and more accurately.

Those physical signals are usually subtle, unless we pass a certain threshold. With sitting and doing nothing we are able to hear those subtle signals and turn their volume up.

Practical way to the meditation to increase your awareness levels:

1. Sit comfortably (inside or outside, I like to sit outside in the sun).

2. Close your eyes.

3. Take 5 deep Breaths, inhale all the way in, feel it in your belly and chest, exhale all the way out, until no air is left inside.

4. Now, as you watch TV, watch your thoughts. If a visual pops, watch it, try not to react, just watch it. If words come up, listen to them.

5. Ask questions. Questions like:
   “Why do I think about that certain thing?”
   “How do I feel about that?”
   “Why do I feel that way?”

Practicing Meditation for 10 minutes a day will be enough to increase your awareness levels and control over your body and mind.

Consumption

While we develop our awareness abilities, and gain clarity over our own internal state, the next part is consumption.

Training our consumption habits is taking control over our inner gate and consciously deciding what gets in and what stays out. Everything that we will allow to get in will change our inner state, Everything. When the input is consistent, it will shape us and change our personal programming.

Inputs can be foods, drinks, substances, videos, pictures, words, music, and every other thing that we can see, hear and feel.

Foods, drinks and substances are the prominent factors that dictate our physical state, our body condition.

Videos, words and music will dictate our thoughts and emotions. It can be content on social media, books, podcasts, YouTube videos, Porn, Songs, Articles, Conversations with people (online and offline), and our own self talk (used both as input and output).

As Said, constant consumption of any kind will shape our behavior, Point of view and own program.

The NPC is not in control over what goes in, the gate is wide open and whatever wants to get in, will get in, with minimum resistance. NPC is like an open-source code, everyone can edit and change lines of code, without need of any permission.

NPC will mindlessly scroll on socials, mindlessly consume foods, spend hours on useless content and with toxic people, without any real value, without any intention, just for the sake of entertainment and “feel good”.

On the other hand, Player-1 is the master of the gate, he has strict entry permissions.

Player-1 is intentional with consumption, he has strong “What, Why, How Much, When” on any kind of consumption.

He aims for high quality, benefiting consuming habits. He controls the timing of consumption, and has goal behind consumption (even if it’s for entertaining and fun)

In order to evolve into a Player-1 consumer, start with raising awareness to your current consumption habits, Mainly Focus on:

• Food Consumption.

• Content Consumption.

• Conversations Consumption.

Start monitoring your consumption habits and ask questions to become more conscious about your choices:

• For a week, make a list of what you ate and in what time (easy as a note on your phone).

• Install A screen Time Widget on your phone to track your usage.

• For a week Write every person you had a conversation with (Again, note on your phone).

Now you have Data you can evaluate, examine and change your behavior according to results.

Ask Yourself Evaluation Questions:

“What’s my reason behind eating X at Y time?”

“Does X have real nutritional value?”

“Did I eat out of hunger or out of other reasons?”

“What time did I pick my phone?”

“What is the first thing I did on my phone?”

“Is that a real priority, did I do it consciously?”

“What’s my average screen time?”

“On what apps do I spend most of my time? is that benefiting?”

“How did I feel during the conversation with X?”

“Was the conversation with X valuable? Why?”

Being aware of your consumption habits is the first step in order to change them. Now that you have an accurate picture of your current state, you know what to address and what needs to change.

From here, change your consumption habits in small chunks:

• Replace unnecessary foods with single ingredient foods (foods that contain 1 ingredient, for example salmon contains only salmon).

• Cut a few minutes of screen time each day, gradually decreasing your total time.

• Expose yourself less to toxic people who you don’t find benefits in talking to and replace it with investing time in yourself.

One line of code at a time.

Output

At that point, we increased our total awareness levels, changed our consumption habits and got a grip over our inner gate.

Now it’s time to put our own factory into production.

Output is everything we generate on our own. It's a generation of physical strength, movement, thoughts, words, emotions and real-life action.

This is a shift from Reaction to Creation.

Body Output will come in the form of exercising.

Start walking outside, 15 min will do.

Start doing bodyweight exercises, all you need is Push-ups, Squats, Plank, and if you can, pull ups.

Level up and sign up to your local gym, don't have to be too fancy, all you need is a barbell, plates, a few dumbbells and a few machines.

Run.

Cycle if you love to.

Stretch yourself, 10 minutes a day, is more than enough for a start.

Get your body moving, start treating yourself as a sports car, give it a proper ride and make sure to push the gas pedal down.

You either use it or lose it.

Thoughts Output will be tied down to words.

Words are spells, and Player-1 is a great wizard, he knows how to utilize the power of words to his own advantage.

Start journaling, write everything that comes to your mind, no rules, just get some output and start rolling. 10 minutes are enough to get out thoughts and articulate mind pulses that might bother you when remaining unarticulated.

Improve your self talk, you can be your worst enemy or best ally. Start treating yourself as an ally, talk to yourself in a constructive manner, motivate yourself, push yourself forward, generate that strong inner voice.

Start talking to others in a constructive way. You have a self-interest in that. No one likes a jerk, no one enjoys being around one who constantly criticizes and talks poorly on others and with others. Talk to others as they were your own children, as you are God who created them to exist in your own reality. Treat them with kindness of heart, water them with compliments and radiate good energy towards them.

Those activities complement each other. When you journal, you produce your own voice and get awareness to it, it will improve the way you think and talk to yourself, and in turn improve the way you talk to others, and that will feed back to your journaling. This is a gradual change to your voice and words.

Different Script, Different Show.

Emotional Output will come in the form of visualization.

It’s kind of similar to meditation but with a different goal in mind.

We sit, close our eyes and breathe 5 deep breaths, to get us into a different mental state and warm ourselves into the activity.

Now, we draw in our mind a picture of a certain reality we want to live in.

It can be a reality of abundance, reality of love, reality of happiness, or any other desired emotion.

Try not to tie it to an external factor like a certain person, or material thing. Try to focus on the sole feeling, try to picture how it will feel to live in that reality, with that specific emotion.

That visualization will evoke emotions, and with using our imagination, we excite that emotion in our current reality, and “pulling” that future into our current present.

We act as a transmitter which tunes itself to a certain frequency and receives every signal on that frequency.

We tune ourselves to a frequency of love, and we instantly feel love.

Same with any other emotion.

Sounds a little Woo-Hoo, I know.

But think about that from the other side, when you think about a negative past situation, you instantly feel anger, or rage. When you think about future potential horror or disaster, you instantly feel anxiety.

So why not turn it around? Why not feel constructive, positive feelings?

To Conclude, in order to become a Player-1:

1. Start with raising your awareness of your current situation.

2. Control your consumption and develop a strong gate guard.

3. Produce real life output with your body, thoughts and emotions.
   

I Appreciate your attention investment in reading this letter, Hope you found value in it!

Have a wonderful weekend, all.

Much love to you and yours,

Yuval.