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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!