During this summer vacation, I had another epiphany about self-gamification, which is the art of turning our own lives into games.
I realized that continuous practicing of self-gamification made resourcefulness unfold easily for me and simply be there as a ready tool and not something I needed to force.
Here is what happened and how I experienced this epiphany.
We had three weeks for our summer holidays this year. My husband, our children, and I spent the first week in North Germany at a resort. Then, we came back home to Aalborg, Denmark. The following day, we were joined by our children’s uncle and their three cousins. So, I had less a bit of an afternoon, an evening, and a short morning for unpacking, doing laundry and cleaning (what I didn’t manage before the holidays) before the guests came.
So the massive amount of work after a long drive home (more than five hours) might have stressed me. Many would understand that, and something like that would have depressed me in the past.
But this time it didn’t. Instead, I observed myself considering various options of unpacking and how I could approach it. I wondered which music I would choose to play in the background when we arrived home and how much time it would take me to unpack. I considered what tools (like empty laundry baskets to sort out the things per room in our house) I could use to make the process more efficient and more naturally flowing.
I became utterly curious about the unpacking process. At some point as I contemplated this, I heard myself saying to my husband, “You might not believe it, but I am looking forward to unpacking tonight.”
He was surprised as much as I was.
So I decided to test this curiosity and see if it really occurred when we would arrive home. In the meanwhile in the car, I continued by chatting with my children when they needed a distraction from the long trip, distributed snacks and water, read books on my Kindle, made notes for the novel I am currently writing, checked my mobile for messages and e-mails, took a nap and did other things that can be done by a parent sitting in the front seat.
As my husband parked the car in our garage, my anticipation picked. I eagerly jumped into what I now call my “unpacking game.”
My husband took care of our garden, and my children went to their toys and games. I had the “unpacking game field” and the entire luggage all for myself. I eagerly proceeded and noticed having immense fun in the process. I put on music, then went on to unpacking (and danced in the process) with an occasional clean of one or another surface in the house. I started counting in my head the pieces of clothes and things I unpacked (and put in their places), as well as the laundry I sorted to put into our two washing machines to get washed. I did feel like a video game figurine.
In the evening, after putting my children to bed, I felt exhausted. But I was happily exhausted. Very happy. I managed to unpack and even did a part of the cleaning and preparing our house for our four visitors arriving the next day. More than that, I had fun.
In the past, it took me sometimes more than a week to unpack from even shorter trips (also those all by myself) than this one with the whole family. In the past, I resented both packing and unpacking deeply. Now, it was fun. I realize today that some of the reasons were new, fresh qualities to it. I had limited time for unpacking, laundry after a week’s holidays away from home, and cleaning — a very limited time. And I had my gameful attitude to life as a habit.
The gameful approach to life, which I practice for several years now, made resourcefulness effortless and extremely fun. I became curious about something I resented before and even eager to address it.
When I experienced this epiphany, I was once again immensely grateful for how my life was turning out at each moment. And for the possibilities self-gamification as a gameful approach to life offers. My life was so surprising and could be so much fun even in the supposedly most mundane situations and activities.
P.S. If you would like to learn more about self-gamification then click here or on the image below:
P.P.S. If you already acquired this book (or another product on self-gamification: the book 5 Minute Perseverance Game or the online course on Udemy Motivate Yourself by Turning Your Life into Fun Games), then I invite you to join the Self-Gamification Community. You can find more about it here.
