You might think it’s just about causing chaos and killing people in the electrical room, but the latest quarantine hit game is more than that. There are actually plenty of life lessons from Among Us that can help us reflect on ourselves and our surroundings better.

What is Among Us?

For those living under a rock, Among Us is an online multiplayer game where you win by either being good at lying or good at putting puzzle pieces together. Imagine Mafia, Werewolf, or Avalon but with cuter avatars and mini-tasks to accomplish. Every round starts with the group of players being assigned one of two roles: crewmate or impostor.

A crewmate can win by either going around all the rooms in the spaceship finishing tasks, or voting out all the impostors on the ship. An impostor’s ultimate goal to kill the crewmates without being found out by the rest of the group.

When the dead body of an impostor’s victim is found, or an emergency meeting is called by a crewmate, everyone votes out someone whom they think is the impostor. So imagine all the finger-blaming and name-calling that ensues in a round of Among Us that creates a fun, wholesome bonding experience between you and your friends.

Alexa, play It Wasn’t Me by Shaggy.

But like we said, life lessons from Among Us are out and about when you take a step back from the game and absorb how it truly mirrors real life.

1. Working smart is better than working hard.

I’ve played countless games of Among Us, and not once have I experienced crewmates winning one just by finishing their tasks. The smarter play is to bide your time doing your tasks while constantly keeping an eye out for dead bodies lying around.

The faster you do your tasks, the higher the chances you’re going to get killed with the impostor searching every room for their next victim. Compare that to someone who is more slow and methodical with the tasks they do. Chances are, the more careful player will have a higher chance of coming out alive.

In real life, don’t be the crewmate who zooms through their everyday tasks without giving much thought on the bigger picture. Working hard can get you far, but it might not lead you to where you want to be. It can even get you killed if you’re not careful.

Take your time before anything else. Those who choose to work smart come out on top by exerting less effort.

2. You don’t win anything by being alone.

Ever tried to go Miss Independent on all your tasks only for the impostor to successfully pin the murder on you come voting time? We’re still holding bitter feelings because of that, tbh.

One of the best strategies is to do your tasks with someone you can “trust”. It does mean that you will have to put your game in someone else’s hands because they may very well be the impostor, but the benefits of having an ally far outweighs not having one.

You get an added layer of protection because most impostors wouldn’t have the guts to kill with somebody else in the room. More importantly, someone can vouch for you when voting time begins.

On the other hand, being alone doesn’t do you any good because it increases the risk of you either getting killed or voted out.

In real life, you will have to trust other people. You might have had bad experiences with some ex-friends who forced you to build impenetrable walls as a consequence of their actions. But one way or another, we will need to learn to let the right people in our lives. There are still solid friends out there who will be there to fight for us when everyone else wants our head on a stick.

3. Some things just trump logic.

Friendship ends when the emergency meeting button is pressed. Everyone is suddenly vulnerable with their guards up, trying to pin the blame on other people while getting all defensive.

While this may be a stressful time for those who remain in the game, those who are already dead get front row seats to an entertaining fight. And the greatest part of being dead is knowing how well or how terribly the impostor is lying to other players.

It is during these meetings where you really get to see how easy logic and the truth can get buried so easily.

In the early voting rounds, you’ll realize that the louder voice will almost always be the one that is followed by the whole group. No matter how well a person defends themselves with logic and facts, everyone else will probably still vote them out.

This example shows us one of life’s toughest pills to swallow: even if the truth is laid out for someone, they will choose to either go with their emotions or what the majority decides. A liar’s confidence is something that will trump logic… which is why we’re seeing too many smart people still getting into MLMs.

4. Being observant is so, so important.

One of the most vital life lessons from Among Us is to be observant of other people.

You have to watch them with intent — not in a creepy stalker kind of way, of course — but you always have to be mindful of their actions.

In the game, you’ll be able to figure out who the impostor is just by keeping track of who was with whom and being aware of who else was in the room. There’s nothing more frustrating than being in the same room when a murder happens, but forgetting who else was there with you.

When a meeting is called, you’ll be able to deduce suspicious behavior by the way other people chat. I play the game a lot with one of my friends who only points fingers when they’re the impostor. His “tell” took a while to figure out, but once I realized the difference in how he acted when given a certain role, it was easy to spot the times when he was lying.

Just being observant and mindful alone will get you far ahead in life.

For one, it helps you cut through other people’s bullshit. When I started to really watch how other people acted, I realized how powerful the act of observing truly is. One of the ways it has helped me as a shy introvert is by letting me know how to approach someone whom I have never talked to before.

And reading a room really helps you not look like a jackass.

5. Trust is tricky.

There are moments of betrayal and lies in the game that will make you question whether or not you can trust anyone ever again. But hey, things wouldn’t be as fun without those moments!

As much as we hate putting this as the last item in a list of life lessons from Among Us, it’s true that your closest friends can ultimately stab you in the back.

In the game, we see this when an impostor tags along with you while doing fake tasks and sabotaging the rest of the group. Just when you think you can trust them with all your heart, they can kill you just like that.

With the risk of bringing up some of your childhood trauma, most of us have probably experienced being made fun of by a so-called friend behind our backs. The moment we realized that they’re not our real friend is a painful memory to relive.

While being treated like trash in front of your face is one thing, a stab in the back by someone you trust is just a whole ‘nother level of hurt.

On the bright side, we can always make room for someone to earn our trust back when we’re ready to forgive. We can always press the “Play Again” button in life; we’ll just have to see their actions to truly determine whether or not they are worthy of it again.

Have you learned life lessons from Among Us, too? Share them with us in the comments below! If you loved this article, then you’ll probably love the other advice we have for you here.

Never miss out on anything by following us @ZoomersCornerPH on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Taking online classes does not mean our life is going to get any easier. In fact, it’s probably going to make us more exhausted than we’ve ever felt before. But if there’s anything that we’ve learned from boy scouts, preparation is key.

So you better buckle up because we’re going to reveal two secrets that can help you figure out how not to get burned out in school!

Secret 1: Learn to say no.

You probably know that you should be doing it. But the harder part is learning how to say no, right? While that is another topic in of itself, I could tell you right now that the biggest thing you need to be able to say no is having some degree of selfishness.

Well we could call it being selfish, but it’s really looking out for yourself. Learning to say no is one of the greatest forms of self-care that you’re probably not practicing.

There are two factors that may be driving you to agree to every opportunity in front of you: guilt and excitement.

 Guilt 

In this context, guilt is something you feel inside, but is brought on by external factors. There are many situations where this feeling may manifest. Common ones include a sibling asking you for a favor, or a friend asking if you can help them out.

We’re not telling you to say no to other people the moment they ask you for your time and effort. But always consider asking “why” before you agree to help out. Then, weigh out your options.

I would personally be hesitant to drop everything I’m doing just to help out someone who’s cramming a paper because they were getting wasted last night. Ultimately, whom you choose to give your time to boils down to you.

Although the greatest sin you could commit is saying yes to someone whom you don’t feel deserves it.

It may seem like it’s rude to say no to someone, but remember that they are simply asking for your time and effort. If they get pissed at you, that speaks more about their character than it does yours.

No one should force you into doing anything but yourself because it’s not your fault if you already have too much on your plate already.

Sure you may feel guilty when you say no, but it’s something you have to deal with to learn how not to get burned out in school.

 Excitement 

Being excited to do everything is a great way to easily get burned out. And unlike guilt, this is something brought upon by your own volition. What you need from yourself is to muster up a little thing called patience.

The feeling of excitement is heavily tied to one’s ambitions. When you’re as young as you are, it’s easy to get caught up in your desire to learn everything you can about the world. Unfortunately, this can lead you to try out so many things at once that you’ll end up spreading yourself too thin.

Do you have those friends with a million extracurricular activities? We call them the Type A leader.

More often than not, no one is forcing them to be a member of all these student groups, but their excitement to try out everything is driving them to make these choices. There are people who crave for that kind of exhaustion in their lives, and there are people who find fun somewhere else.

What may be good for your growth and happiness may not necessarily be good for your mental and emotional state.

You have to catch yourself during these times and have the guts to say no to yourself. It’s easier than it sounds, but everyone has some sort of self-driven motivation that will make them say yes to every shiny opportunity.

So how exactly do you avoid giving into your own excitement?

Secret 2: Plot out your priorities. Then cut them down.

You can’t do everything at once. Whether you like it or not, there will come a time where you’ll just have too many things in your plate. The worst thing you could do is add unnecessary tasks because of guilt or excitement.

It’s common sense. When your stomach is already full, you don’t order another plate; you remove it from your system.

The important thing you need to do is to mentally or physically note what your priorities are for the immediate future, and the weeks to come. And priorities here don’t necessarily mean work. This is not a to-do list where every item needs to be ticked off.

Priorities can refer to things or activities that you find valuable: reading a book, going out with friends, doing a skincare routine. Once you’ve ranked them from most important to least, it’s time to remove the ones at the bottom of the list. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to completely forget about them, it’s just that those things are gonna have to wait.

You only have 24 hours in a day. Something’s got to give.

Accepting this fact is the first step to learning how not to get burned out.

If you’re having a difficult time cancelling or “postponing” your priorities, then ask yourself: what do I need right now?

Sometimes you just need to get a certain assignment done because of a looming deadline. And sometimes, you just need to rest, so put off the online workshop you were going to attend and spend more time with your family.

Being focused on what you really need to do will help you fight guilt and excitement because you’ll know that you are saying no with purpose.

You want to learn another secret about how not to get burned out in school? Stop trying to be perfect. In this article, we give you tips on how you can avoid falling into that trap. Never miss out on anything by following us @ZoomersCornerPH on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Featured Image: Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels

The post How Students Can Avoid Burnout by Learning these 2 Secrets appeared first on Zoomers Corner.

Stop trying to be the perfect person. You’re not Superman or Wonder Woman. It’s time we normalize being mediocre because success doesn’t always mean happiness. In fact, the drive of being perfect all the time can kill you. We’re gonna have to stop being a perfectionist someday.

What kind of perfectionist are you?

Every perfectionist has their own motivation that explains why they want to overachieve all the time. A study conducted across three decades identified three types of perfectionists, succinctly explained by Evolve Treatment Centers.

Self-oriented perfectionists find the desire to become perfect from within themselves. Usually, this translates to a higher level of productivity and career growth.

Other-oriented perfectionists are those who expect other people to be perfect. They’re the type to judge too harshly because they have high standards for everyone else. Basically, this is the groupmate that chooses to do everything themselves rather than assign tasks to others.

Socially-prescribed perfectionists are those who feel a pressure to perform better because of other people’s expectations, and as a result, are prone to getting anxiety and depression. Unfortunately, being pressured by external factors puts them at a higher risk of self-harm.

What are the downsides to being a perfectionist?

You might have identified yourself as a self-oriented perfectionist and thought: a higher level of productivity and career growth? There’s nothing wrong with that.

Unfortunately, you’re not off the hook. No matter what kind of perfectionist you are, thinking like one is generally associated with suicidal thoughts, anxiety, and depression. That’s because of the voice in your head telling you that you’re not good enough. Being a perfectionist is an endless train of thought where you never feel a sense of self-adequacy. Or when you do, it’s just temporary.

When it comes to work, be prepared for major burnout and stress. While it’s true that perfectionists are more motivated, they also work way longer hours. “Get a life, ya workaholic,” said the voice in your head as you willingly open a new Google Docs tab.

You want to know something really interesting though? In a study by Harvard Business Review, they saw no correlation between perfectionism and performance. This means that the people who put in extra work to make sure everything is in tip-top shape don’t necessarily perform better. As the popular adage goes: work smart, not hard.

Is it possible to stop being a perfectionist? Definitely, but we can’t change our behavior overnight.  The last thing we want to do is trying to be perfect at not being a perfectionist.

But here are small reminders that we could give for zoomers who can’t help but overachieve:

Motivate yourself the right way.

When you start to constantly doubt yourself and your abilities, it’s time to take a step back and re-evaluate your “why”. There’s a fine line between healthy motivation and toxic overachievement.

Your motivation should be the reason you get up in the morning and look forward to living life. It’s something that should make you happy, as opposed to something you dread. For example, going through a school or work week because there’s a big party on Friday night is motivation. Doing it just because you don’t want a grade lower than a B+ is something that just stresses you out.

Imagine yourself in that situation: you’re on your desk at 3 AM anxiously overstudying all the reviewers and slides for midterms. Then you start to break down because the test is in a few hours, and you start to doubt that you’re ever gonna get a grade higher than a B+. All this, while someone who just wants to go to that Friday night party is probably asleep having studied the right amount… not stressing.

When you pick out your reason for doing something, make sure that it will not cause additional anxiety. Having a positive source of motivation is important for you to stop being a perfectionist.

Be realistic.

When your goals start becoming unrealistic, you should re-align them to be more achievable. For example, when we don’t reach our goals in a certain time, we tend to overcompensate by working a hundred times harder in one big burst. By the end of the day, we’re too exhausted for life.

There’s a reason why they say life is not a sprint, but a marathon. You’re not supposed to rush through the process because if you do, you’re just gonna end up being the loser.

I thought time would be a great example for this piece of advice because that’s where we usually fall short when setting our SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic & time-bound) goals. Yes, you can be a CEO of a hundred million-peso company but you can’t give up when you’re just a month in.

Just remember to be honest with yourself when evaluating your capabilities in relation to your goal. And by the way, don’t feel like you’re settling when you adjust or scale down your goal to something more achievable. It’s perfectly normal!

Trust others to take the lead.

You could stop being a perfectionist by not trying to fix everything yourself. It’s just impossible!

We talked about how being a perfectionist could lead to intense burnout. Well, it could be a byproduct of wanting to solve every issue that pops up, and having a hand in every single decision that’s made. But sometimes, you just have to step away and pass the baton to other people.

I know how hard it could be to do that especially if they have let you down before. I’ve been in that position; I get you.

Although, it’s important to realize that not everyone is at their 100% all the time. Maybe they were just off their game during that time they “broke your trust” when you had delegated a task to them. Try to understand that, and look at the things that they’ve done right. ‘Cause that probably outweighs all the shortcomings that they have.

Learn to trust others, and build genuine connections with other people to foster that trust. It’s time you learned the value of teamwork.

Besides, who’s to say your version of perfect is the only version of perfect? You might just be making things worse putting your hands where they shouldn’t be.

Learn to prioritize.

Human beings in general have a lot of goals they want to achieve. However, everyday life is already so draining that we can’t do everything that we set out to do.

If you’re one of the people that believes you can be everything that you want to be, then make sure you’re not tiring yourself out. There are only 24 hours in a day, and you’ll have to make a ton of compromises to not go through life like a walking zombie.

In that case, it’s important to know what you need to do, what you really want to do, what you just want to do, and what you can cut from your life completely.

When you don’t do this, something’s gonna give eventually and mess everything up, domino effect-style. It’s better to avoid going through all that in the first place by determining what goals can wait and what cannot.

Don’t get me wrong, you shouldn’t really “stop being a perfectionist”. I mean for most of us, we’ve seen good results in our lives from dreaming big.

But the important thing is to not lean too hard into a toxic mindset where it becomes normal to beat yourself up over being “just okay”. While being excellent is impressive, being okay will suffice a lot of times. Know when to turn on the perfectionist switch, but always remember to turn it off!

Are you anxious over graduating and need some advice on that too? Read our article on lessons for college graduates. Don’t forget to follow us @ZoomersCornerPH on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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Congratulations to the new batch of “gradwaiting” and graduating students! Now, it’s time for you to face the real world. The post-graduation life is both confusing and overwhelming, but the lessons you’ll learn are endless. It’s been a year since I graduated, but I’ve learned more about the world in the past months than I have in the four years that I’ve been a student. Here are some lessons and tips for graduates in the Philippines that I want to share from the experiences of both myself and my friends.

1. Rest before you find a job.

If your parents aren’t kicking you out of your house or forcing you to get a job, take a break. Not everyone has the privilege of being able to rest after college. So if you do, take the chance! You will thank yourself later.

It’s tempting to go job-hunting when you’re worried about competition, but rest doesn’t come so easily as a working adult anymore. I’ve heard many friends tell me they regret not taking a break after college because they were instantly burnt out after they landed a job.

Remember: life isn’t a race, it’s a marathon.

2. Finding a job isn’t instant.

When I was a college senior, I really thought it would be easy to secure a job. But obviously, I was wrong. There are a lot of things you’d have to do, like prepare a killer resume and/or portfolio, filter through jobs and companies, send out e-mails, and ace job interviews.

As a fresh graduate, you’d find a lot of jobs that is beyond your experience level. Reality is, there are also many companies who will not get back to your job application. These things delayed how long the job-hunting process for me. Luckily, the internet is full of tips for graduates in the Philippines that will ensure that you get that dream job.

I was lucky enough that everything only took me a month and a half. For some, it took three months or even more. If you’re going to rest after college, make sure you’re realistic with the timetable that you set when it pertains to job-hunting.

3. You will meet people who are so different from you.

This one is kind of obvious, but you won’t really realize how true it is until you’re out there. When you’re in school, you more or less grow up thinking the same as your classmates and friends.

However, once you get out of that bubble, you will inevitably meet people who have different opinions and mindsets as yours. There will be people who will make you think: what kind of messed-up environment did they grow up in?

You thought you had the patience and tolerance to deal with those people? We’ll see.

4. Finding friends isn’t easy.

My college friends and I would talk about this a lot when we first started. In school, there are many opportunities to make new friends through classes, and extracurricular activities.

However, it’s kind of tough to create new connections after college because you’d have to willingly put your foot forward. You’d have to put some effort in finding people to talk to, which may be an introvert’s worst nightmare.

On top of my head, you can meet people through Tinder, mutual friends, workout classes, or work. So there are options, but no one’s going to force you to be friends with anyone anymore except yourself.

5. Doing vices was a phase for many people.

College was a playground for experimentation. For many of us, it was the “wildest” phase of our young lives where we were into sex, drugs, smoking, and alcohol.

Now that we have bigger problems to take care, those things have taken a backseat. Most of my friends who doubled down on vices during college eventually grew out of them.

Of course some of us still do engage in them, but don’t be surprised if your lasinggero friend isn’t always up for blackout nights anymore. Oh, and just to make it clear, we don’t condone the use of any illegal drugs here. Please stop if you are.

6. College friends are forever… or not.

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Post-graduation is a great test of that.

I’ve already drifted apart from friends whom I thought I was going to be close with forever. But I’ve also forged even deeper connections with a few of the people I met in college even when we started working.

There is definitely some effort involved in maintaining the friendships that you have, so it’s up to you to decide which ones are worth fighting for.

7. Everyone has their own lives.

In college, it was easier to be there for your friends when you saw each other regularly.

But in the real world, it’s sometimes hard to find time and energy to be there for each other.

As you’re making all of these adjustments in life, it’s hard not to get caught up in your own little world. There will come a point where you’ll think you’re a crappy friend, but the guilt is perfectly normal. You can’t be there for everyone all the time, and not everyone can be there for you all the time too.

The important thing is the effort you exert in finding time for each other, because that alone speaks volumes.

8. College did not prepare you for the important stuff.

I can tell you about some communication theories and frameworks that I learned in college, but I’d be lying if I said I knew how taxes worked.

The post-graduate life has taught me that I was clueless about a lot of important, real-life stuff. For instance, knowing how to apply for SSS, PAG-IBIG, PhilHealth, TIN, and NBI Clearance was a task I needed to learn on my own. Back in August, I was involved in a car accident, but had no idea how insurance worked. Also, don’t even get me started on bills.

One of the most important tips for graduates in the Philippines is to do your research as early as now!

Looking back, I wish I had some sort of guidance on how to go about them. And I’m sure there will be more surprise life lessons to come.

9. You can’t take away the school from the graduate.

Unfortunately, you will be judged a lot by the school you graduated from, especially if it’s relatively well-known.

There are a lot of times when I’ve heard I only act a certain way because I came from UP. Which is a slap in the face, because I am more than my school. That’s why I’ve decided to always refrain from telling people where I went to college unless it’s relevant to the topic.

Whether you like it or not, you represent your school and your school represents you too.

10. Priorities change.

I remember being quite ambitious after I had just graduated from college. There were big dreams that I wanted to follow. But shit (that I’m probably gonna blog about soon) happened, and now, I just want to be happy.

When I was still in college, I always planned to work in the developmental sector through an NGO. However, when I had to go the corporate route because NGOs wouldn’t hire fresh graduates, I realized that I needed to work on myself and my hard skills first.

Truth is, most of us don’t know what the hell we want in life. Because of that, the things we find important will definitely change.

We will all go through certain events that will lead us to constantly rethink the things we hold dear and the path we ought to take.

11. People change.

It’s hard to accept, but you know it’s gonna happen.

The people around you will not be the same people they were in college. Everyone will face different obstacles and triumphs that will shape the way they think, feel, and behave. Sometimes, you won’t even recognize who they are anymore.

But it’s not just them. You will change, too. It’s human nature so don’t try to fight it.

However, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Most of the time, people change for the better.

With everything have been said, I hope I didn’t scare you too much. Because trust me, life after college can be difficult, exhausting, and downright mean. But it’s also exciting and magical. This is the beginning of your lifelong journey to becoming your own person.

Once again, congratulations to the 2020 graduates! May you show the world how beautiful zoomers can be.

Got more tips for graduates in the Philippines? Leave a comment below, and don’t forget to share the post to your graduating friends!

Make sure to find more pieces of advice for zoomers here if you enjoyed reading through our tips for graduates in the Philippines.

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