Breaking up with achievements

I have decided to break up with achievements; we're still going to be friends, we're just not going to live together anymore. What I mean when I say this is, I am going to (try to) stop actively thinking about achievements because they have become a prison, a prison that takes away from my gaming experience more often than not.

For years I have chased achievements and always made sure to check out a game's achievements before I played it so I would know if any were missable, if the difficulty affected them, or any other information I deemed "important." But what was I getting out of this? Do achievements mean anything? Are there any tangible rewards? Will I ever "catch 'em all?" The answer to each question is no and I'm finally ready to accept that.

I haven't felt too enthusiastic about games for a while now; sure, some games have managed to break me out of prison from time to time--Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain fultoned me away for quite the lovely while--but, for the most part, I have felt very indifferent and believe achievements are one the main culprits. Too often I go into a game with achievements in mind, playing on the hardest difficulty so I only have to play a game once, even if I don't find it fun--e.g., The Witcher III--or playing a game with a guide so I don't miss hidden collectibles, taking away the specialness that comes with finding them on my own. I have let achievements take over my [gaming] life and I say no more.

No more will I let an achievement make me play a game in a way I wouldn't otherwise just because I would get a few worthless points out of it. No more will I let achievements factor into deciding what I'll play because this game has easier achievements than that game and that matters for some reason. I say no more. I will no longer play a game for achievements, but I will still enjoy them, or, more accurately, I'll start enjoying them for the first time in a long time as I begin playing games for the game itself, like I used to, letting achievements fall back into a place where they're nothing but an occasional popup that says, "Hey, you just did something noteworthy and that's pretty cool."