If you are looking to improve any areas of your life then gamification might be a solution. Gamification has been proven to be successful methods to accomplish the goals laid out by a wide range of different industries. Primarily, gamification can be used subliminally by marketing companies looking to generate responses and interactions from potential clients or customers. Other industries, such as the online casino industry base their whole business model around it and no deposit bonuses let you check those out for free. Today, though, we are focused on the use of gamification on a more micro, personal level. If you are interested in learning how you can apply gamification to your everyday life and develop yourself personally with it, then you should continue trading.
What is Gamification?
Gamification as a concept involves the application elements traditional found in games and then applying them to areas that previously didn’t have these elements. This most prominently includes elements such as point scoring or competition with others but can include a much more diverse range of gaming elements. It may occur to you that you may already apply these elements to your life in some way, shape or form and your process to live would, therefore, qualify as gamification. The art of gamification though is being actively aware of the elements that gamification covers and then applying them consciously to your lifestyle and using them to improve areas of your life. When successfully applied, gamification can be a very effective and many people who already apply it to their lives are seeing more results than those who don’t.
Why does Gamification develop you personally?
The nature of gamification is results-driven. This is hence why it can be used as an effective marketing tool. The same concept applies to using gamification as a means by which to improve yourself personally.
The reason for this is the close connection the world of games has with that of the real-world. In a game, certain missions and goals are laid out for you and if you accomplish these, then rewards will come your way and you will progress further. As you progress, these tasks and missions get harder and you may fail but then you keep going again and again until eventually you get it right and you can move on. Life works in much the same way.
Often, challenges in life can be very abstract and there may not be any clear markers that tell you that you are improving or going in the right direction, but there are still goals or one big eventual goal for you to achieve. With gamification, you can set your own rules and decide what mini-goals or measurements can be used to measure success. Having something tangible can really help you stay on track and keep a vision in mind.
Personal gamification has no black or white definition and this is the beauty of it. By turning tough challenges into a game, they don’t become so tough to manage and can even become more fun than you have possibly previously imagined.
How to Use Gamification
Depending on what area of your life you are trying to improve, gamification can work slightly different. A great example of using gamification for life tasks would be learning an instrument. When you first begin, you will struggle with finding the right notes and the pace in which you must generate these in order to make a tune. After a few hours of struggling, you may get angry and give up. However, with gamification applied, you would see each new note you learn as a level that you must complete.
With each completed level, you must move onto the next level, a new note, and a note that is harder to accomplish than the last. This allows you to break down the new notes one at a time and learn gradually until they are each mastered individually as opposed to trying to tackle the whole process of learning the instrument at once. After a period, you will have completed the easy levels and be ready to tackle more complex ones. You can further add the system by giving yourself an reward for each level you can complete.
This is just one example of gamification that uses the idea of levels. However, for others, you may want to include more competitive elements of gamification. If we talk about the gym and building muscle or losing weight. You can, of course, use each milestone and consider it a level. More effective though would be to use the competition element and challenge a friend or colleague to see who can lose the most weight or lift the heaviest weight. By doing this, you are not only getting a more manageable process but you strive to better the other person and this will push you further than if you were going it alone.
A similar concept can be used for saving money. Here again, you can further the application of Gamification. Say you are looking to save $4000. Having to scrimp and save constantly can be very boring. However, if you determine each $400 you save as level, then you treat yourself as a form of “prize” for your hard work. If you are competing with someone else, then perhaps you can treat one another. In total, that would mean 10 prizes along the way to achieving your saving goal.
Ultimately, it can be applied to any task and moulded to fit your needs and you are truly the designer of your own game. Thus, you become as a result of this, the designer of your own personal growth and how that is measured.
Methods of Gamification
Here are some top ways to implement gamification:
– Levels– Think of different milestones as levels that you have completed.
– Points– Construct a point system that can measure your progress.
– Prize – Much like a game, different achievement result in rewards.
– Competition – Compete against other people.
– Rules – Set rules that you must stay within.
– Punishments – If you have rules, there must be consequences for breaking them too.
– Fun – Games are about having fun and so should your personal development.
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