{"id":64,"date":"2014-03-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sqlhammer.com\/blog\/my-epic-life-quest"},"modified":"2026-03-18T21:50:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T21:50:55","slug":"my-epic-life-quest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/2014\/03\/23\/my-epic-life-quest\/","title":{"rendered":"My Epic Life Quest"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a child I watched television and watched movies. The influence of the shows I watched on me is undeniable. It didn\u2019t take much to build a vision of how life is meant to progress. At least, the version that is so commonly displayed on the television. I \u201cknew\u201d that I needed to graduate from high school, move on to and graduate with a four-year degree from college, and then start my first job as a middle manager or at least a supervisory position. Formal education was supposed to be the golden ticket. All I\u2019d have to worry about is my performance once I got that job so I could keep it.<\/p>\n

Now I know better. The path I explained above is a path that can bring you to success but it is nowhere near as much of a guarantee as I thought, and it is only one of many paths to success, not \u201cthe\u201d path. Thankfully, I joined the U.S. Navy out of high school and for six years I matured and began to understand more about how to succeed in life. While working from within an organization that is heavily constrained by bureaucracy I learned the value of long-term goals and how to create micro-goals to achieve them.<\/p>\n

Keeping a goal oriented mentality and an appreciation for the value of out-of-the-box or creative paths has worked very well for me thus far. Then I stumbled upon \u00a0Brent Ozar\u2019s ( w<\/a> | b<\/a> | t<\/a> ), \u201cEpic Life Quest<\/a>.\u201d Brent\u2019s quest was based on of Steve Kamb\u2019s ( w<\/a> | t<\/a> ), \u201cEpic Quest of Awesome<\/a>,\u201d and I found it to be a fun way to manage life goals in the same way that we progress in our favorite video \/ role-playing games. So here is my Epic Life Quest!<\/p>\n

How it works<\/h2>\n

The best role-playing games create a strong connection between the player and real life. Sometimes this connection is difficult to see because of the fictional nature of these games but the appeal to the game is that you have the opportunity to fantasize about another life. Without key elements of the story to relate to, the player doesn\u2019t gain the satisfaction expected from the game. So while we create games to relate to life, why not treat life like these games? Your typical role-playing game will use some variation of a leveling system to illustrate the sum of your experiences. This is similar to life, we are the sum of our experiences and achievements. There is one key difference though, in life there is no one around to define our goals and let us know when we\u2019ve leveled up. That\u2019s what my epic life quest is about, defining long-term goals and using a fun way to track progress.<\/p>\n

Following Brent\u2019s lead, I\u2019ve chosen to grant myself a level for ever five goals that I meet, whether personal or professional. Level 1 will include the notable accomplishments of my life up to the start of my quest.<\/p>\n

Level 1 Quests (Completed before 2014)\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

This is a list of some of the most major landmarks in my life up to January 1st, 2014.<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Lead a technical team (Head of Database Operations | Liberty Tax Service) \u2013 Completed 2013<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      \n
    • Have a second child (Kayla Hammer) \u2013 Completed 2013<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        \n
      • Buy my first house \u2013 Completed 2013<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
          \n
        • Have a child (Paige Hammer) \u2013 Completed 2010<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
            \n
          • Achieve an honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy \u2013 Completed 2011<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
              \n
            • Get Cap\u2019ed to E-6 (meritorious advancement to First Class Petty officer) \u2013 Completed 2010<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                \n
              • Go on a Cruise (pleasure, non-Naval) \u2013 Completed 2009<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                  \n
                • Marry the love of my life \u2013 Completed 2009<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                  As a child I watched television and watched movies. The influence of the shows I watched on me is undeniable. It didn\u2019t take much to build a vision of how life is meant to progress. At least, the version that is so commonly displayed on the television. I \u201cknew\u201d that I needed to graduate from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327,"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sqlhammer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}