my mental block

Some students go home and play computer games and don't do their home work. I have the opposite problem. I've reached a point where intellectually I want to play computer games but it's almost impossible for me to do so. I think I'm wasting time, that I always have something better to do, etc.

But I'm working on my "bad attitude", maybe this story will help:

There is a small village, known across the country for their food and their mountains - and for their monthly lottery. The local school raffled quilts to raise money.

One of the villagers, a woman named Greta, worked tirelessly for the poor. She made clothes and bread for the needy. She gave away every penny she ever earned.

The thing she wanted most in the world was to win the lottery. It started off as a whim. She thought how much better she would sleep with a nice quilt. Then it grew into an obsession. But month after month, year after year, she never won. And she grew bitter. She still did her work but resentfully. She was often heard muttering angrily to herself as she delivered food. Every night before going to bed, looking at her shabby bed, she moaned up to the heavens, "I am your humble servant. I do everything I believe you want. All I ask is one thing. I just want to win the lottery once. Is that so much?"

One night, a booming voice came down from the heavens. "Greta!"

"Yes," she said, trembling.

"Buy a ticket!"

If you want to understand computer games then you need to play one!

[The story is from Clark Aldrich's book, Simulations and the Future of Learning: An innovative (and Perhaps Revolutionary) Approach to e-Learning]