If this blog’s going to be about my personal side quests, I should probably define what a side quest is–both inside of a video game and outside of it–and how it differs from a main quest.

Quests are most commonly associated from role-playing games (RPGs) like Skyrim, in which a player moves through a game in control of a single character.

In RPGs, a player will typically spend their time working through the main quest: the primary plot line of the game. Alongside that main quest, though, a player can also spend time playing through side quests: optional missions that splinter off from the primary storyline.

Let’s make it a bit more concrete. In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the player takes the protagonist, Link, through a series of adventures and challenges to aid Princess Zelda and the Kingdom of Hyrule in defeating ever-present villain, Ganondorf. These comprise Link’s main quests.

But that’s not all Tears of the Kingdom affords. Link can embark on what feels like innumerable side quests throughout the game. These activities have ostensibly nothing to do with the battle against Ganondorf. He can help other characters cook recipes by sharing hard-to-find ingredients with them. He can go searching for buried treasure. He can compete in horse races. He can, as you see here, help a friend find his wife.

None of those side quests is critical to completing the game; in fact, some players have challenged themselves to complete as little of the game’s quests as possible before defeating Ganondorf and rolling credits.

So taking a step back and applying this to the non-video game world (and specifically to my life):

Main quest: the primary focus(es) in my life. For me, my career and my immediate family are my main quests.

Side quests: anything outside of that primary focus: more optional activities that don’t directly pertain to or influence the main quest. For me, that might be completing an art project, trying a new recipe, traveling to a new place, or learning a non-work-related skill.

Next time, I’ll share some of the side quests that I’m going to start. Stay tuned!