Stop the stat-stare: learning to enjoy the sport and not the metrics.

We've got a lot of delicious markers in axe throwing. An average patch. An 81 coin. Another 81 coin. Another one after that. Prolly another that I don't even know about.

We've got AxeScores (sometimes) and can see (for now) how we've developed and regressed and improved or slid backward whenever we want (mostly). The sport of axe throwing - the game of axe throwing - is, itself, gamified pretty well and good. And man, it's addictive.

But I've reached a sort of...I dunno...an ignorant Nirvana. I've started going entire leagues (marathon or otherwise) not looking at my stats. A tourney? Absolutely zero investigation into how I'm doing. I try to be centered and aware of what I'm doing, not how I've done. Does that make any sense?

The problem I was running into - and what I think lots of people can run into - was getting hella focused on mistakes/poor performance, and allowing that focus to flavor how I did in future matches. I'd lose a couple, then look at how those losses affected my stats, then I'd feel bad about that, then I'd throw my next few feeling defeated.

Dear reader, I can hear you, now, "hey, bud, how 'bout you find some self-esteem?"

And that's fair. Unreasonable, but fair.

Like any self-respecting guy out there, I'm totally ignoring any self-improvement or introspection and instead have created a much more complex, difficult process to follow!

What I can say, simply, is that I'm happier when I throw, now. I'm care free. I'm just here for the fun of it and to enjoy what I'm doing (even if part of that enjoyment is, indeed, throwing as well as I can). I still care a lot about those delectable statistics, they are a dessert and not the main course of any axe throwing adventure.

Anyway, since shifting my thinking on the importance of statistics -- or maybe more correctly, the immediate importance of statistics -- I've started throwing better. Importantly, I've started throwing happier. I'm just excited to be doing something with fun people, and can celebrate little successes a lot more than before. Just me? Maybe. But it's made such a difference, overall, that I wanted to share.