"Zelda: Ocarina of Time" or "Racing through the to-do list"

Are our RPG (role playing game) personas a reflection of who we are, who we want to be, or a little of both? Kimberly Wallace's article "Confessions Of An Item Hoarder," made me ponder this very question. 

When I play RPGs, or rather, Zelda (because that's pretty much the only RPG I play, if you count that as an RPG), my main objective is to finish. I obtain the essential items and find the quickest route to my destinations. I wouldn't say I cut corners. I just would rather not spend much time on any quests or missions not related to the ultimate and urgent objective of saving Hyrule.

The downside of my strategy is I miss many items and secrets that could actually help me in the game.

However, I did something a little different with "Ocarina of Time." It's the only Zelda game I replayed. The first time I played, I did my usual strategy. When I played it again, though, my mission was to find all the secrets in the game.

This was before you could watch people play complete games on YouTube by the way.

I hit every single tree with my sword. I put bombs by all the rocky hills in search of secret passageways. I used my hookshot to jump to every cliff. It took much longer to finish the game, but I was so proud to find all the extra goodies. I didn't simply finish it. I completed it.

At work, sometimes my main focus is to race through the to-do list. My perfectionist streak competes with my determination to get things done, but determination usually wins.

When I get lost in the details of making a stellar Powerpoint presentation with the easiest to read font, a theme that conveys the organization's brand with just the color scheme, impeccable grammar and spelling, and precisely centered bullet points on each slide that do not overwhelm the readers with text, I revert back to "Oh just get it done. They'll all be on their phones during this presentation anyway."

I finish the Powerpoint (or whatever project) on time and it's good enough for my supervisor. I can't help but think though, that just one more hour or two and it would have been perfect.

I hope someday to find a balance between "finishing" and "perfection." Checking all the items on the to-do list is satisfying, but I think I do my very best work when I give myself time to slow down.

So to answer my original question, "Ocarina of Time" was the one time I was a little of both. 

What about you? Is RPG you the real you, aspirational you, or a mix? Or maybe something else?...