Competing with the Higher Ed Game

The Higher Ed Game is one of four. Each game demands investments which take away from the other games. To advance in the Higher Ed Game, it's necessary to cut back or avoid investments in the other games. Here are the competing games which interfere with advancing in the Higher Ed Game for most players:

1. The Family Game demands time, energy and attention from players. There may be much younger or older family members in need. There may be a spouse or siblings who maintain high-maintenance relationships. Family members may schedule lots of activities. A well-meaning parent may start flying around like a helicopter parent. The player may be a single parent while attending college. Any of these facets of the Family Game can undermine advancing to advanced levels in the Higher Ed Game.
2. The Work Game also consumes the time, energy and attention from players. Work may demand large blocks of time, lots of stamina or massive amounts of concentration. Work may be the opposite of a no-brainer that can get done on very little sleep which means time away from work needs to be spent getting rested. The size of paychecks may vary with how many hours get worked which rewards time away from the other games that don't pay monetarily. 
3. The Social Game is usually high maintenance. Friends make it known when they feel neglected, ignored or abandoned. Romantic interests don't take kindly to excuses involving work, school work or family obligations. Relationships with people who feel clingy, needy or lonely result in spending lots of hang time with them. Social activities usually involve lots of advance planning to agree on a time, place and roster of people involved. Conversations go on endlessly about who just said what to whom regarding which issue. When socializing includes lots of partying into late hours and alcohol, the next day is eliminated from advancing in any of the four games.

Each game has four levels of play as I'm envisioning all this. We only have eight potential investments we can make in those sixteen levels. We can play at the top of our game in two by totally neglecting the other two. It's far more likely we'll play at level one or two in three games and break into a higher level in only one game. There's no escaping the other three games when playing the Higher Ed Game. Managing those investments comprise the meta-game for advancing beyond Higher Ed Hell by devoting more resources to learning from college experiences.