The $20 Lesson: How a Hard Boss Taught Me to Just Turn It Off

I’ve been diving deep into Hollow Knight: Silksong, and I was expecting the challenge. But sometimes, a game throws a wall at you that just sucks the fun right out of it.

For me, that wall was a boss I'll call Groal the Great.

The Challenge of Groal the Great

This boss is notoriously hard. I was discouraged, honestly. Failing so many times started to feel like a personal defeat, and the whole boss fight just took the joy out of the game. I was watching complex guides online—ridiculously complex strategies or people just cheesing it—and I realized I was trying to beat the game, but I wasn't having fun anymore.

The struggle felt real, and the anger was intense. I was stuck thinking, I have to do this perfectly. I have to earn this win.

The Deep Revelation

But then, I had this moment where the whole thing stopped making sense. A moment of clarity helped me to think—why am I even here? What is the purpose of this experience?

And the simple answer hit me: The purpose of the game was to have fun.

In that moment, I let go of the self-imposed pressure to be a "pure" gamer. I decided to cheese it. I hid in a corner and spammed projectiles until the boss finally went down. And you know what? It felt great. It felt like an enormous weight was lifted. I didn't feel bad about it at all. I had seen what I needed to see, and now I could move on and have fun again.

The Spiritual Reflection

This whole experience taught me The $20 Lesson—the true value of that game wasn't in the perfect achievement badge or the "fair fight." It was in the joy I was supposed to be experiencing.

That moment of choosing the easy path gave me a vivid, emotional understanding of something much bigger. It showed me how self-binding goals and achievements can be if you look at the bigger picture. We get so focused on doing things the hard way, the "right" way, that we miss the real point.

The spiritual truth I found in that corner was simple: I can just turn it off. I can turn off the self-binding pressure. I can choose self-kindness over needless struggle. When the frustration and struggle are costing me the joy of the journey, I have the power to choose grace, reset my mind, and get back to the true purpose.