All posts by vica

Sometimes It’s Just a Matter of the “Right” Question

Self-Gamification, , , , ,
(Image courtesy of the author)

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Our lives are full of questions. We get many from those who surround us in our lives, and just as many, or probably more, we put ourselves.

And the latter are often huge and quite unanswerable. Especially in times of crisis, these questions tend to be simply overwhelming instead of helping.

“What should I do to clean up this mess of my life I have?”

You will agree that such a question is not only helpful, but it is both much too dramatic and utterly unproductive.

I recently discovered the following fun quote in a fun book about game design by Justin Gary with the title Think Like A Game Designer: The Step-by-Step Guide to Unlocking Your Creative Potential:

“There are no sure answers, only better questions.”
— Dick Van Dyke

So, what are the right and better questions?

I find the following quote gives a brilliant clue:

“Your brain wants to play! A question wakes up your brain and delights it.”
— Robert Maurer, One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way

So the clue is to make the questions fun.

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Two-choice games

But the next question is how to make them fun. ;D

Here is an idea.

Have you ever played a two-choice game? I came up or probably recalled from the experience, where this wasn’t called a game, with a little game for my children when they were upset and felt stuck before making a decision and when they feared to make a wrong choice.

I then tell them, “I will give you a choice of two words, and you pick one without much thinking. Just pick one word.” Then, I assure them that there is no wrong answer. The clue is to make a choice quick — whatever comes to mind first.

And so we start. I say, “Blue or green, chair or table, game or computer, Superman or Batman, white or black, chocolate or ice cream, chocolate or computer, …” and they make their choices. In the process, their faces light up, and they relax.

Right after playing that little game, I offer them to go back to their challenge and see if they have a choice there too. I again remind them that there is no right or wrong, just right for them. And we are all delighted when that choice is made with great enthusiasm.

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Yes-or-No questions and their power of a simple choice

Yes-or-No questions are such two-choice games. And if we don’t judge ourselves for saying either Yes or No, but simply look at their essence, we can then turn the card with the answer to the one leading us in the direction of our goals and dreams.

Our lives are made out of many projects — both at work and in our personal lives. To help others and myself disentangle a stagnating project, I came up with 15 Yes-or-No questions to help us find a way out of being stuck. I summarized them in a little book called Turn Your No Into Yes: 15 Yes-or-No Questions to Disentangle Your Project.

Here is what one of the book’s readers wrote in his review:

“This little book is just the tool for ending procrastination for any kind of project! Just reading Victoria’s questions shifted my resistance to my working on a play I’m writing. The book is easy and fun to read and got me back on track very quickly.”
— Michael Hanko in review on Amazon.com

Here are these 15 Yes-or-No questions:

Have you:

  1. Taken some time off?
  2. Created an elevator pitch?
  3. Identified what your customer wants?
  4. Identified what your customer needs?
  5. Compared what you can offer with their wants and needs?
  6. Estimated what you will need to invest (time, money, etc.)?
  7. Considered your feelings about the outstanding tasks?
  8. Talked to your customer about possible changes?
  9. Created a checklist for your project?
  10. Left space to add more items or make changes?
  11. Shared the checklist with your customer?
  12. Devoted enough time to the tiniest details?
  13. Stopped to realize that your project brings value?
  14. Asked your customer what value the project provides?
  15. Considered what completing the project means to you?

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To take the next step

To learn more about these fifteen questions, I invite you to read this little book, Turn Your No Into Yes, which costs only $0.99 in e-book format. Click on the link with the book’s title above or on the image below to view and buy it on Amazon:

If you want to see where else you can buy it, then go to the book’s page on this website here.

Alternatively, you can subscribe to my page, Optimist Writer, on ko-fi for $5 a month, and besides supporting what I do, you will also get access to all my motivational books, which I share there once a month or each time a book is out. Right now, you can get access to four of my books there — one upon subscription or one-time support, and three in the posts solely for subscribers. Turn Your No Into Yes will appear later this year or upon explicit request from subscribers.

But you can also get an earlier version of the book for free if you subscribe to my blog or newsletter. You can do it here.

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Enjoy playing the above and developing your very own Yes-or-No games, and turning your challenges, projects, activities, tasks, and anything else in your life into fun games! ?

There Is Always a Possibility as Long as You Want to Play

Self-Gamification, , , , , , ,
(Image courtesy of the author)

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Regardless if you own a business or make a part of it as its employee, I guess you care about its success. You are aware of its goals, and you are aware of the goals in your projects.

Defining goals often involves planning the path towards reaching them. However, the exact rules of your business “game” may never be known to you completely because they evolve together with you.

There are games where you don’t know about its goals and rules until you start playing them.

Here is one example:

“A game like Portal turns our definition of a game on its head, but doesn’t destroy it. The four core elements of goals, rules, feedback, and voluntary participation remain the same—they just play out in a different order. It used to be that we were spoon-fed the goal and the rules, and we would then seek feedback on our progress. But increasingly, the feedback systems are what we learn first. They guide us toward the goal and help us decode the rules. And that’s as powerful a motivation to play as any: discovering exactly what is possible in this brand-new virtual world.” — Jane McGonigal, Reality is Broken

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Businesses are like games

Running a business or managing a project is often such a game — you find the rules and some of its goals during play.

It can appear daunting, but there is one great fact about the goals and rules in a business or project game. You are not only the game’s player, but you are also its designer or at least co-designer. You can define your own goals, rules, and reporting (feedback) system or adjust those already in place so that the project or task at hand excites you to engage in it.

In some business areas and comprehensive programs and projects, the rules defining how to reach the business’s and projects’ goals got the following term: business rules.

I learned about business rules in a community implementing an international technical standard but discovered that I also had many business rules as an author and entrepreneur. This concept is handy in defining and maintaining the knowledge base of all decisions and choices I make along building my business and pursuing various projects.

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An idea

To help others understand and use the business rules concept, I came up with an anagram to define various types or categories of business rules for any business or project. I described this anagram and ten categories I defined in a book called Take Control of Your Business: Learn What Business Rules Are, Find Out That You Already Know and Use Them, Then Update Them Regularly to Maximize Your Business Success.

Click on the link with the book’s title above or on the image below to view and buy it on Amazon:

If you want to see where else you can buy it, then go to the book’s page on this website here.

Alternatively, you can subscribe to my page, Optimist Writer, on ko-fi for $5 a month, and besides supporting what I do, you will also get access to all my motivational books, which I share there once a month or each time a book is out. Right now, you can get access to four of my books there — one upon subscription or one-time support, and three in the posts solely for subscribers. Take Control of Your Business will appear later this year or upon explicit request from subscribers.

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Enjoy discovering and developing the rules of your business and project games! ?

Here is Why You, Writer, Need Cheerleaders

Self-Gamification, , , , , ,

 

(Image courtesy of the author)

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Beginning something new can be both daunting and exciting. We, authors, face the beginnings with each new empty page.

Finishing one page might be super exciting, but suddenly we meet the start of another, empty one.

We all might have heard the brilliant wisdom by Nora Roberts and other prolific authors, “You can’t edit a blank page.” But how do we start filling in those blanks?

Any creative excitement can flip quickly into nervousness and even despair, especially when we love what we do — the bigger the wish, the bigger both the excitement and fear of both succeeding and failing.

Cheerleaders remind sports teams of excitement. They help the athletes to “reframe” nervousness into something positive and fun. They remind them and the audience that something big and amazing is about to happen.

The stories writers create are big and amazing too! Each of them is unique, be it one of fiction or true events.

Thus, we, writers, need cheerleaders too.

We can be our own cheerleaders, and there are many great tips on how to do it. My favorite approach is to turn life into fun games.

But sometimes we also need cheerleaders from outside. Our family, friends, fellow writers, agents, publishers — they all have the ability to be such cheerleaders too.

And I have one in the form of a little book for you. Its title is Cheerleading for Writers. I am thrilled that it has helped many authors on the way and that some acclaimed and even a New York Times bestselling author have appreciated it so much that they wrote a review.

I invite you to read this little book and get powered up in your epic creative writing journey.

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Where you can find this cheerleader

To take a look at the Cheerleading for Writers, read its reviews, and buy it on Amazon, click on its title above or the image below:

If you want to see where else you can buy it, then go to the book’s page on this website here.

Alternatively, you can subscribe to my page, Optimist Writer, on ko-fi for $5 a month, and besides supporting what I do, you will also get access to all my motivational books, which I share there once a month or each time a book is out. Right now, you can get access to four of my books there — one upon subscription or one-time support, and three in the posts solely for subscribers. Cheerleading for Writers will be added later this year or upon explicit request from subscribers.

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Enjoy being cheered and feeding your hungry pages! 😀

What Is the Best Thing About Turning Life Into Fun Games From Game Design Perspective

Self-Gamification, , ,

Screenshot by the author

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I want to invite you into the world of game designers. Writers and artists are also such designers. All these and other creatives have one thing in common. When they create something for others to enjoy, they have to think about what their customers might feel or wish for.

In one of the sixteen books I am reading right now in parallel, I found the following enlightening quote about the challenge that many game designers and creatives face:

“A great game designer must both predict the actions that players will take within a given game and understand how those actions will make players feel. To some of you, this definition may sound a bit wishy-washy.

“‘We have to talk about feelings?’ Yup, there is no escaping it. Our job as game designers can be described as working in a feeling factory. Only by understanding our own feelings and emotional reactions to games can we empathize well enough with others to do our jobs well. Get ready to get uncomfortable!”

— Justin Gary, Think Like A Game Designer: The Step-by-Step Guide to Unlocking Your Creative Potential

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The best game designers trust their players’ instincts

Later in the same book, I found the following truths about game players:

“In a fundamental way, player perception is reality.”

and

“The best test for knowing whether players liked your game is if they ask to play again.”

And when they play you — as the game designer — pay attention to the following:

“Try and make a player’s natural instincts be (most of the time) the correct thing to do. If your players are constantly taking a certain course of action, embrace it.”

— Justin Gary, Think Like A Game Designer: The Step-by-Step Guide to Unlocking Your Creative Potential

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You have your player right inside you

Game designers have the challenge of guessing and later finding out what their players think by gathering feedback and observing them while the players test the game.

As the self-motivational game designer — the one who turns challenges, projects, activities, and tasks into fun games for yourself — you have an enormous advantage comparing to what the traditional game designers face.

You have your player right inside you. You are the player and the designer of your games.

So, the clue is that you observe how you feel with the game you play (= task you took on or been given to) and then, if necessary, tweak the design of that game in such a way that the player — yourself — can’t wait to engage into this real-life game.

Your tools are awareness, identifying the smallest step you can perform effortlessly and with the resources you already have, and approaching the whole thing gamefully and playfully.

I invite you to reread the quotes above as a self-motivational game designer. Become aware that the player in those quotes is you. Here is the last of the quotes above rewritten to make it visible that the player of your life’s games is you:

“Try and make [your] natural instincts be the correct thing to do. If [you] are constantly taking a certain course of action, embrace it.”

Isn’t this awareness and the brilliant wisdom of a hugely successful game designer fantastic?

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Where you can learn about being both designer and player of your life’s games

The awareness that you have all the tools to make any challenge, project, or activity exciting and fun for yourself can help bring on your natural resourcefulness.

But if you want to take it to the next step, I invite you to check out many of the resources I offer to turn life into fun games. You can find a comprehensive list here.

If you enjoy learning through online courses, then I have a special offer for you.

I have created a coupon to enroll in my online course Motivate Yourself By Turning Your Life Into Fun Games on Udemy for only $9.99 instead of the standard price of $154.99. You save over 90%. To take advantage of this coupon, make sure you redeem it before February 9. Click on the title of the course above or the image below to enroll with this special price:

Image by Alice Jago

Here are the coupon’s data for your convenience:

  • Code: 2A8452A550DDD3B79E3B
  • Expires 02/09/2021 00:02 AM PST (GMT -8)

If you have questions, then you can contact me either by e-mail or on social media. You can find the list of channels where you can find me on my contact page.

How to Answer Questions on Turning Life into Fun Games

Self-Gamification, , , , , ,
(Image courtesy of the author)

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When we are offered a new idea or a new approach, many questions appear almost all by themselves.

Why should I do it? What is it good for? Who is responsible for making this idea come true? When should I find time for it? Where is it appropriate to do such a thing? Where shall I get resources to make it a reality? Who can help me in the process? And the master of all questions: How shall I do it?

After I formulated my approach to turning life into fun games — which I call “Self-Gamification” — in my book Self-Gamification Happiness Formula (about which I wrote yesterday in this post), I started receiving and answering many questions starting with the six question words: what, why, who, when, where, and how.

Simultaneously, two of the book’s readers have complained about its considerable length — over 90,000 words. The Self-Gamification Happiness Formula considers the approach bringing anthropology, kaizen, and gamification into a strong synergy from multiple perspectives and also shares some of my self-motivational game designs. But what these readers looked for was a short introduction into the Self-Gamification approach, which would concisely answer the what, why, who, when, where, and how questions.

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The 5W&1H book is born

And so the idea was born. I had enormous fun compiling a little book called The Who, What, When, Where, Why & How of Turning Life into Fun Games. You could say, I disassembled the Self-Gamification Happiness Formula, as you would a castle or other big construct built out of LEGO® bricks delivered in a set with an instruction manual. Then I selected many of the bigger book’s “bricks,” took a few from a book I have published shortly prior, Gameful Project Management, and created something completely new.

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Very brief answers to the
who, what, when, where, why, and how
questions

This little book’s description names the questions I answered in the book. I challenge myself now to a game to answer these questions in ten or fewer words each. Let’s see how I will do:

  • Q: Who is responsible for turning projects, activities, and whole lives into games?
  • A: You.
  • Q: What can be turned into games?
  • A: Anything and everything.
  • Q: When does it make sense to turn something into games?
  • A: Now or any time you need help.
  • Q: Where could or should projects and activities be turned into games?
  • A: Where you are.
  • Q: Why does it make sense to turn projects, activities, and even our whole lives into fun games?
  • A: Two of many reasons: lack of drama and effortless resourcefulness.
  • Q: How can we turn projects, activities, and our lives into games?
  • A: By using the three-in-one toolset embracing anthropology, kaizen, and gamification.

Wow, I didn’t plan it, but I did manage to fit my answers into ten or fewer words right from the first formulation of each of them. Yay! I won. 😀

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Where to find longer answers

My answers above are understandably too short, so I invite you to open The Who, What, When, Where, Why & How of Turning Life into Fun Games and discover longer, but still concise, answers to the six questions above.

To take a look at the book and buy it on Amazon, click on its title in this section above or the image below:

If you want to see where else you can buy it, then go to the book’s page on this website here.

Alternatively, you can subscribe to my page, Optimist Writer, on ko-fi for $5 a month, and besides supporting what I do, you will also get access to all my motivational books, which I share there once a month or each time a book is out. Right now, you can get access to four of my books there — one upon subscription or one-time support, and three in the posts solely for subscribers. Since the day before yesterday, the Self-Gamification Happiness Formula is one of the three. The Who, What, When, Where, Why & How of Turning Life into Fun Games will be one of the next books I will share there.

Enjoy answering any question you receive or ask yourself in a gameful and joyful way!