March 19, 2015

“Not everything in life is fun.”

Have you ever been told that? Maybe as a child? I remember being told that when I was little, and wanted to somehow turn chores in to a game. “Sometimes you just have to do your work,” my mother would tell me. To give her credit, it was probably due to her patient willingness to turn chores into a game on occasion that made me believe life could work that way. Well, she must have done a better job than she meant to, because I still believe that! I want to show you how turning the mundane into a game can make your life more satisfying, and enjoyable when you are presented with work that you just do not want to do.

Jane Mcgonigal gave an amazing TED talk in 2012 worth watching, in which she describes her battle with debilitating symptoms from a poorly healed concussion. Faced with headaches, nausea, metal clarity issues, and ultimately suicidal ideation, she did what she knew how to do: She turned her struggle into a game! She recruited family members to play with her. She gave her game a name, objectives, and power ups. And she started to feel better. Not the physical symptoms, but the mental dysfunction vanished.

Remember when you were a kid and you were walking with a friend, and as you approached a break in the trail you would at the last minute start walking faster? Maybe, you even ran at the end to reach that imaginary finish line that only you knew existed. It was so exciting win the race that only you knew about! Life’s like that. Or it can be.

However as you get older, a race to a tree seems somewhat less… exciting. We crave bigger and better storylines.

Here’s why: You have already leveled up, and you didn’t even realize it.

In video game architecture you start out as this little insignificant character. (Bet you’ve never felt like that before.) You take on bad guys that your grandmother could beat up in real life, and the challenges are suited to your skill level. Then, as the game progresses, the quests, and challenges become more difficult. The enemies become bigger, and stronger, but so do you. Throughout the whole games there is never anything you can’t overcome if you work hard enough, because you level up as you go.

Life’s like that. This is not my version of, “God and the universe won’t give you something you cannot handle.” This is human psychology. As we grow, we take on harder, and harder challenges. We do it in our work, taking on harder jobs with more responsibility, and striving for that promotion. We do it in our consumer lives, collecting bigger houses, and nicer cars. We do it in our friendships, rallying more, and deeper connections. Life is not like this because it’s a well build simile. Life is like our games because our games are modeled after life!

There is an important difference, though. Games are well built stories designed to be psychologically gratifying. Game makers want you to be happy. Life isn’t always so clean. Life doesn’t really care if you are actually happy. Life can be frustrating. The promotions don’t always come, and the house starts falling apart before we can get a bigger one. Friendships become strained. A lot of the times, the things that we thought would make us happy don’t. Life gets overwhelming.

So when the game gets too hard you quit, right? Wrong. This is reality, there is no quitting this one. Instead, I want you to double down. You don’t need to quit the game. You need a better game- one with a better story.

What can you use games for?

Games can be created and used for all sorts of activities. Usually these are going to either be boring chore-like tasks that you are just trying to make more enjoyable, or they are going to be real world challenges that you are struggling with, and really need a boast, or attitude change.

Make it suck less

This is the one your mother warned you about. Whether it is fixing the roof, or doing the dishes, this category is the one where we make the boring stuff palatable. Humanity has a stubborn belief that some things are miserable, but you have to do them anyway, and nothing can change that. We can make apps to make life more enjoyable, we can take vacations, and we can enjoy our leisure. However, there is absolutely nothing to be done about the dishes. I don’t subscribe to that belief. Look, if a 5 year old can do it, I think you have this one on lock. What you need is a better story. Perhaps one that is more challenging. So what does it look like?

The Kings Trophy Room

King Riegen, Master Bladeworker of the Cohegen people, and his once great city is under siege. With the Dark Army amassing outside the city walls it is becoming ever more likely that the city will fall with the sun. The King has already begun to evacuate the populace into the Parse Mountain Range to the north, and by nightfall only the royal army will remain. The great artifacts, and treasures are being salvaged from the Great Library, and the Treasury. You, his Grace’s right hand, has been charged with clearing the trophy room. To buy time for your people, all the great treasure must appear to be present, when the Dark Lord comes. And so, you will wield the Worlds Power to create replicas of all the great pieces. The spell must work as one, and nothing not under its power may remain. Everything that is not of value must be discarded, for your power is limited. Everything must be neat and in order, or the spells intricate form will collapse upon itself. Choose wisely what must be kept, every mistake betrays the ruse, and your Power has already become weakened from the siege. And Hurry! The Dark Army comes!

Quest: To clean out the bedroom closet. You must keep only what is still used or important for financial or sentimental reasons. Everything must be organized.

Rules: Every time you keep something it uses a little bit of your power to create its replica. Only you know how must power you have left. Organization replenishes part of you power. Discarding items strengthens the spell. Any valuable found that belong elsewhere win you the Kings favor. You have 5 hours to complete your task before the city is sacked. Begin. And hurry, the townspeople lives depend on you!

I see what you did there

Too much, or not enough? If your idea seems over the top, and ridiculous, good! This isn’t for sharing, unless you’re up for it, and then I hope you enjoy people looking at you the same way you are looking at your screen right now. This is the race against your friend who didn’t know he was racing. This is just to make your life a little more fun. Don’t be so serious. Enjoy life a little!

This is just an example though. (Unless you really need to straighten up your bedroom closet.) Lets break down the important elements for making these work.

1) A Story: You need a backdrop story to make it stick. So when you make the call to throw out that ugly sweater that made you look fat before you gained 10 pounds, you are amused on the inside about your ruse for the Dark Lord. Sometimes it may help you to feel some meaning or importance that wouldn’t be there, or it may just make you smile at the ridiculousness what you have created. Either way, the task will be more pleasant. If Kings’ trophy rooms aren’t your thing, maybe being a contestant on a home makeover show is. Just try to be imaginative. More outlandish is often better. Create names of characters, and settings. Imagining yourself in a “strangers closet” won’t do the same thing inside of you as “The trophy room of King Riegen, Master Bladeworker of the Cohegen.”

2) A Quest: Usually you already know this. It’s what you want to accomplish. It is usually in your head before the story. I just wrote it out to show you the objective.

3) The Rules: Try to define rules, or power-ups to give more outline to what you get for certain tasks along the way. It makes it more game like, and adds success fulfillment when you complete tasks. If you can make even more concrete parameters like “For every 5 pairs of shoes I throw out, I level up,” go for it. If you want to give yourself real-world rewards like “Each time I get ¼ of the closet cleared that’s a stage, and I get a 15 minute break,” even better. Classical conditioning is a wonderful thing. Just be mindful not to be counter-productive. A cookie for every time you stick you your mystical weight loss diet may not be the best idea. Do not be afraid to add rules, or make changes as you go. None of this is set in stone. Remember the rest of the world doesn’t even know its playing!

Playing Games in Real Life

“Well that’s all well in good for boring little work around the house when no one’s looking, but you don’t really expect me to do this at work, or in public do you?”

Ummmm… Yes, I 100% do!

In fact, this is the strategy I used to improve, and overcome what was perhaps the greatest challenge in my work. This doesn’t have to be for small time stuff. Need ideas?

• Financial goals
• Weight gain/weight loss/health, and wellness goals
• Business goals
• Maintaining a civil, and friendly conversation with your cousin Daniel
• Overcoming personal problems

The list goes on. Think about your own life, and pick out the top 1-3 things you’ve been struggling with, without good results, for a long time, and see if this helps.

“But it feels fake.”

Then fake it till you make it. This is about results, improvement, and life satisfaction. I’m not asking you to do anything immoral here. I’m asking you to achieve your goals, and enjoy yourself. That should be a win-win. There is too much to be said about belief systems to go into here, but I’ll leave you with one more thought: If this feels fake because you “made it up,” think about how your goal was created to begin with. You may find most goals are not as concretely based as you believe.

“Look buddy, this is a serious matter.”

Whoa, pulling out the ‘buddy’ language! Well then, don’t do it. If it doesn’t feel appropriate to you, don’t do it. However, I’ve never met a bad situation that having a good attitude about didn’t help, or wouldn’t have. Jane Mcgonigal’s situation seemed pretty serious to me. Sometime when all you want to do is fetal up and cry, dancing is a better decision.

You can’t win unless you play

Not everything in life is fun. True. However, if we can make a few more things enjoyable, and succeed in a few more of our goals along the way, I say we go for it.

I don’t know who wins at Life, but I know who wins that race to the tree.

-Michael Speck

It took most of the night but Cohegen had finally fallen. Satisfied with the ruination around him, and excited by the fires that blazed on rooftops, and smoldered in collapsed shops, the Dark Lord strode proudly into King Riegen’s trophy room- the King had truly been the Master of nothing. His people had managed to scatter into the mountains, but that would be of little accord as soon as the Dark Lord finished inspecting his spoils. They called to him worse than gold to a beggar. Close to tainted rapture in his greed, he sat to admire the great trophy room, as servants brought the pieces to him one by one. Too enthralled even to notice the sun rise and fall, he sat. Everything else would wait for now. The spoils of war shone, and gleamed so brightly- even brighter than he expected… almost brighter than they should.

Do you have a story line you have used to get things done? Please share with us in the comments!

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