Losing the only game that matters...

Today I woke up at 6:30 so I could shower and eat before I went to work a job I don't hate. About 11 hours later, I came home $200 richer. I need that money to pay rent, feed myself, keep the lights and internet on, and pay expenses on my car and student loans. These are the obligations I've chosen to take on, and my current arangement lets me afford these things and have a little left over to save and go out once a week or so. As far as real life money and possessions are concerned, it's a nice situation.

But if this were a game, I'd be losing.

The rules of the game are simple. The only resource worth mentioning is time, because it's something everyone has, but everyone has a finite amount. In the interest of fairness, we'll give everyone the same 24 hours, rather than worrying about years, which can vary from person to person. The object of the the game is to aquire as much time as possible, because time is necessary for all other activities. And because time cannot be created, it can only be consumed, the mechanic by which this works is to devide time into two categories: obligation time and free time. The more free time a player has, the greater control they have over their life.

I spend 11 hours a day preparing for work, commuting to and from work, and sitting at my desk at my job. I sleep seven hours a day, which is two hours fewer than I'd like. Making and eating food takes another 1.5 to 2 hours a day, and random chores like hygene take another hour. That leaves me with a little more than 3 hours a day for non-necessary persuits, as defined by the obligations I've chosen. That's 12.5% of my day that's free to use as I see fit. 20.5 hours spent on obligaitons to aquire 3.5 hours of free time.

Put another way, I tolerate seven hours of obligation to live one hour of life. I'm getting shafted on this trade, and I'm losing this game.

Which is how it should be, according to conventional thinking. People who win the game are always outside the mainstream, whether they win by being insanely rich, like an A list actor, by minimizing their obligations, like a wandering hippie, or by finding a way to meet their obligations in their free time, like an artist or entrepeneur. But most people don't win the game. A great many people have a fullfulling, enjoyable time losing the game, but they still lose.
I want to win. I want to flip that trade, and I want to do it sooner rather than later. You can have fun playing the game, or you can have fun winning the game, and I'm going to play to win.