Tag Archives: #blogging

Some of Our Ideas Might Be Nothing Else Than Misconceptions

August 24, 2023Self-Gamification, Writing#blogging, #gamefullife, #joy, #writingvica

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It can be enlightening to revise our thoughts and ideas occasionally. We can discover some interesting misconceptions when we look closely and without judgment.

I discovered such a misconception for myself regarding blogging and newsletter marketing, which are essential for all entrepreneurs. I had this idea that I didn’t like doing either. In general. And that it was always that way. That I did it because I thought I had to.

But recently, I became aware that it was not the case. There were many times when I enjoyed doing both — blogging and writing newsletters. And indeed, there were times when I didn’t. But the latter didn’t mean I hated doing them in general, as I thought for quite some time.

The actual reason for my reluctance turned out to be that I didn’t enjoy what I thought I should have been writing. Not blogging in general, but the things I decided I had to blog about or write about in the newsletters.

So, a couple of days ago, I realized what I wanted to do. I wanted to write something new on Medium and here on my blog. I wanted to experiment with different topics and be gameful and playful with them.

As I became aware of that, I realized that having short little projects for blogging on Medium and my website and writing newsletters will satisfy the so-called “shiny object syndrome.”

The New York Times and USA Today best-selling and self-publishing author Joanna Penn addresses the “shiny object syndrome” in her acclaimed book How To Write Non-Fiction: Turn Your Knowledge Into Words. This syndrome essentially describes being distracted from, and therefore procrastinating about the project you want or need to pursue by other things that pique your curiosity.

So, by exploring something new in my blog posts, say twice a month (once for Medium and once for my blog here), I would give myself a breather from the long book projects where I play the perseverance game, and with that satisfy my curiosity for something new and “shiny.”

Another author I gladly learn from is Rachel Aaron. In her brilliant book 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love, among many other great things, she said the following (the emphasis is done as in the original):

“If you are not enjoying your writing,
you’re doing it wrong.
“A book is not a battle, nor is it a conquest. A book is a story, and telling it should be an enjoyable exercise.” —

Rachel Aaron, 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love

A blog is not a battle either, and I am glad I took the time to remind myself to enjoy the blogging exercise and write about it.

I hope you enjoyed reading this, too.

I wish you joy with your writing or any other endeavor!

Because

“[W]e can only bring joy with what we love and enjoy doing.”

This quote is from a parable, Gameful Writing, which I wrote on turning writing (and life) into fun games.

I invite you to check it out:

Check out or buy the book here:

Gameful Writing on Amazon.com

Gameful Writing on other online bookstores

P.S.

If you want unlimited access to all Medium articles (including mine), I invite you to become a Medium member (subscriber). Medium is an excellent place for both writers and readers. Please note that I will receive a portion of your membership fee if you subscribe using this link. That will be a fantastic support for my work.

P.P.S.

If you want to follow me outside Medium, join my mailing list here.

Blogging Here Again

June 22, 2023Self-Gamification#blogging, #gamefullife, #relaxation, #selfgamification, #summervica

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It’s been some time since I blogged here. I started blogging in April 2013. You can read my first-ever blog post here. So, it was over ten years ago. I didn’t stop blogging altogether after my last post was published here on October 12, 2021, but I did it on Medium.

My blogging on Medium also slowed because I love spending my creative time writing books. But I am not stopping to blog entirely. There is something that keeps me here. I guess this is the possibility to connect with you, dear reader, and let you know what is happening in my writing life and life-gaming.

On Medium and for some time, I have been sharing excerpts from my books. Here and from now on, I will share various of my self-motivational games with you and my thoughts on turning life into fun games. Some new material might find its way into my books or to Medium, and some won’t. I will let myself explore and find out.

The frequency of the blogs will be relaxed and sporadic. My guess is about once a month or once every two months. Our lives are busy, and I don’t want to bombard you with too many blog posts.

And now, I will have a little game called “coffee break” and then return to my other real-life games. I wish you a wonderful summer!

But wait! Before you go, I have a little something for you, and it is an excerpt from my latest book on living gamefully called Self-Help and Self-Care Games.

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Our lives are never static and always evolve, often in surprising and unexpected ways, even if we often try to label them with one word or phrase.

A single recipe for self-help and self-care can never satisfy our needs in the long run.
Drawing parallels with and inspiration from games can help here.

Successful online games get regular updates and new features. Or maybe some older and forgotten features, but reinvented and shown in a new light. Even board games get extensions, expansions, and new releases. Some card games carry blank cards for the players to create their own extensions.

One of the reasons lies in the following wisdom:

“[T]he destiny of games is to become boring, not to be fun. Those of us who want games to be fun are fighting a losing battle against the human brain because fun is a process and routine is its destination.” — Raph Koster, Theory of Fun for Game Design

This awareness is fantastic, isn’t it? Both the understanding that there are many perfect ways to do the same thing and the realization that games or gamified systems (such as apps for maintaining healthy habits and others) or all those self-care, self-help, and self-love recipes are not a one-off solution for all our troubles and a one-time pill to regain our happiness. They are the stepping stones on our way to identifying what is fun and joyful for us at any given moment.

Here is a follow-up thought from the same book by Raph Koster:

“Many games, of course, seem to become more fun as you learn more about them. This has a lot to do with the nature of the challenge presented in those games; they tend to present problems of a certain complexity level that reveals more subtleties the deeper in you go.” — ibid.

Many successful games (such as chess) are multidimensional and have a deeper, changing nature.

Our lives have this changing nature. We usually resist it, but seeing and treating anything in our lives as games can show us how fun they can actually be.

And if we have learned everything from a real-life game (or at least think so), we can either add fun elements to its design to keep ourselves engaged until the end of the game or until we achieve a specific goal or level, or leave that game and go on to another. And if we want, we can come back to it later.

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One Minute Read from the Gameful Blogging on Medium.com

May 28, 2021Self-Gamification, Writing#blogging, #gamefullife, #gamefulwriting, #gamification, #gamifyingblogging, #gamifyinglife, #OptimistWriter, #selfgamificationvica

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Here is another blog post in a series featuring videos on YouTube, where I read from one of my motivational books for one minute.

In this video, I read from my new book Gameful Blogging on Medium.com: Thirteen Levels in the Epic Adventure of a Top Writer and Super Creator on Medium (Book 6 in the “Gameful Life” series).

I am reading the first section of the chapter “Level 11. Being Clear about the Goals.”

Here it is if you want to read along, prior, or afterward.

***

Excerpt from the Gameful Blogging on Medium.com

What happened before

The previous article (chapter) I wrote about turning writing and publishing on Medium into fun games was about enjoying the breaks in publishing there, such as during the holiday season. I referred to those breaks as cooldown phases, well-known in sports and games.

In that story, I recommended not worrying if you notice yourself watching your stats and earnings. In fact, I even mentioned that it might be fun and enlightening, especially during a cooldown phase.

But at the end of the article, I also recommended looking less at the stats and earnings during an active phase, that is, while writing and publishing on Medium.

There is another important aspect to the stats and earnings:

If you connect your goals to the numbers in your stats and Medium Partner Program earnings, you will not really be turning your time on Medium into fun games. Instead, you will be chasing a fantasy, a Fata Morgana.

Here is why.

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The next step

If you want to find out more about gaining the feeling of success and fun while blogging on Medium and also how to persevere writing and publishing on Medium in fun and gameful ways, then I invite you to read Gameful Blogging on Medium.com. To look at the book and buy it on Amazon, click on its title above or this image below:

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

I wish you a beautiful and gameful day!

Celebrating Gameful Blogging on Medium.com

May 12, 2021Self-Gamification#blogging, #ebook, #gamefullife, #medium, #newbook, #OptimistWriter, #paperback, #selfgamificationvica

3D image and cover design by Alice Jago

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This week I am celebrating the launch of my new book Gameful Blogging on Medium.com.

One article that served as the last chapter in the book was celebratory as well. It was article number 200 I published on Medium since starting writing and publishing there on April 30, 2020.

You can read it here (it is a free link, meaning that you don’t have to be a Medium subscriber to be able to read it):

“How You Can Create Your Own Reward System on Medium”

To read the book as the whole in a polished and revised shape, as well as to get access to all the original articles on which the book is based, check out on Amazon under Gameful Blogging on Medium.com: Thirteen Levels in the Epic Adventure of a Top Writer and Super Creator on Medium.

If you want to see where else you can find and buy it, check out this page here.

One Minute Read from the Gameful Writing

February 23, 2021Self-Gamification#blogging, #compassion, #courage, #encouragement, #gamefullife, #gamefulwriting, #games, #gamification, #grief, #kindness, #love, #OptimistWriter, #sadness, #selfawareness, #selfgamification, #smallsteps, #writing, #writinglifevica

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Here is the seventh blog post in a series featuring videos on YouTube, where I read from one of my motivational books for one minute.

In this video, I read from a parable Gameful Writing: Seven People, Seven Stories, Seven Lessons Learned (Book 4 in the “Gameful Life” series).

I am reading the extract from section 3 (“***”) of chapter 5, “Torben.”

Here it is if you want to read along, prior, or afterward.

***

Excerpt from the Gameful Writing

Torben finished reading the blog post and reread it. The blogger was right. It was time to play. It was time for him to pack all this stuff and move back to Odense. Maybe without letting Karina know. But he would call just in case to make sure she still wanted him to come back.

But first, the pre-quest. Torben felt strange, he realized. He still wasn’t sure about the writing thing. He could find other ways to spend his time. For example, the pre-quest, or the side-quest, as the blogger called it. Never really a gamer himself, Torben was still wondering, how just one article, or five if he was honest, had moved him to speak in terms of a game player. In Lily’s slang, as he realized, and as it seemed this blogger’s too.

OK, let’s get my favorite cup. Torben went back to the kitchen and took out the cup he wrapped in paper towel before reading the last Gameful Writing blog post.

***

The next step

If you want to find out more about these seven stories in one about turning writing or anything else in life into fun games regardless of the circumstances, then I invite you to read Gameful Writing. To look at the book and buy it on Amazon, click on its title above or this 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. Gameful Writing will appear later this year or sooner upon explicit request from the subscribers.

I wish you a beautiful, gameful, and creative day!