So far, we have considered all the five “W” questions — those starting with the words “who,” “what,” “when,” “where” and “why.”
The remaining question is how to turn something or anything into games.
The answer is multi-faceted, and in a way, the whole book is about how to do it, because the “how?” embraces the answers to all the “W” questions: “who?”, “what?”, “when?”, “where?” and “why?”.
But the most important facet of how to turn our lives into games is that the gameful approach to life, Self-Gamification, just like those for our health, well-being, and happiness, is not a one-time pill to fix a problem once and for all, but a lifestyle. Because:
“Happiness is not a destination. It is a way of life.” — Anonymous
2. What is Self-Gamification?
So, what is this new approach to increasing self-motivation and bringing ourselves back on our happy path? And why the need for a new term?
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. 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!
The extract I am reading is from the chapter “About the Game.”
Here it is if you want to read along, prior, or afterward.
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Excerpt from the chapter “About the Game”
Procrastination means putting off something which needs doing, whereas perseverance is to keep on doing the task whatever it takes.
So procrastination is bad and perseverance is good. Do you agree?
You do? Have you ever tried questioning this statement?
Quite a few people on the Internet do question the supposedly negative side of procrastination by organizing pro-procrastinating fan groups. They rebel and fight the procrastination fighters.
And what do the others, the pro-perseverance say? Many say you need to work hard to achieve something. They search for those inspiring figures throughout history and the present, who achieved amazing heights in various areas, in spite of challenges they might have faced or still face.
You want the same, badly. You want to achieve something, you have a dream. But on the other hand, you like what procrastinators and writers of “Be lazy at work” books say. You want fun, not hard work.
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Special news and a special offer
Before I finish this post, here is a reminder of the special piece of information I announced in the post “How to Persevere With Joy Instead of Effort,” published a week and a half ago.
Here is what I shared there with you:
I will publish the 2nd (5-Year) edition of the 5 Minute Perseverance Game this year. I sent the revised manuscript to my editor this week, and I hope in March, I will publish it.
So, here is my offer to you.
If you buy the first edition of the 5 Minute Perseverance Game before the second is published and send me a copy of your receipt, then within the week of the second edition’s launch, I will send you a link where you will be able to download the second edition of the book as an e-book in a format of your choice.
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:
Taken some time off?
Created an elevator pitch?
Identified what your customer wants?
Identified what your customer needs?
Compared what you can offer with their wants and needs?
Estimated what you will need to invest (time, money, etc.)?
Considered your feelings about the outstanding tasks?
Talked to your customer about possible changes?
Created a checklist for your project?
Left space to add more items or make changes?
Shared the checklist with your customer?
Devoted enough time to the tiniest details?
Stopped to realize that your project brings value?
Asked your customer what value the project provides?
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.
***
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!
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.
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.
***
Enjoy discovering and developing the rules of your business and project games!
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.
***
Enjoy being cheered and feeding your hungry pages! 😀
