I’ve always been obsessed with video games.

They gave me something special that I couldn’t find in the real world.

I didn’t know what it was, but I was addicted to it.

This obsession came at a cost.

I remember the days when I used to wake up in the morning and immediately open Fortnite.

I was playing until midnight, neglecting everything else in my life.

The only thing my mind focused on was games.

I was sitting non-stop, forgetting to eat, so my body and health were completely damaged.

I was antisocial in the real world, and when it came to doing some work, there was a big problem — I always felt bored or anxious.

I recall one day, I was playing an RPG game on Roblox.

I’d been doing it for 4 hours straight while thinking, “Why do I play this childish game and can’t stop”?

It was the strangest feeling ever. I wanted to stop, but I couldn’t.

This was not long ago from the moment I fell pretty badly and I decided to get out of the rut.

Later after, I discovered the secret…

One day, I met with my best friend, a Grand Theft Auto die-hard player.

He once said, “How amazing would life be if it were a video game? To have the XP bar above our head and all the stuff.”

I was skeptical about it at first, but I took some time to think.

I discovered that’s actually the perspective of the successful people I admired.

I saw them as superhumans because they had everything:

• wealth

• health

• relationships

• happiness

I tried it, and it changed the way I look at the world.

A New Perspective

Life is a video game.

Realising it is the hardest step.

The next one is to play it efficiently.

Once you do it, you will be able to:

• Reach your goals faster (while getting addicted to the process)

• Leverage your character abilities

• Know exactly your position in the game (and what should you do next)

• Stop taking life so seriously

The 3 pillars of video games

The science behind them makes them addictive.

1) The Feeling of Importance

You, as a human, feel the desire to be accepted and approved by others.

You will always try new ways to make yourself stand out among the crowd.

But what’s the connection between this psychological truth and video games?

Games manage to activate the same chemicals in your brain as achieving the deepest urge in human nature: the feeling of importance.

Every single game nowadays has a community formed by people with the same interests.

They all communicate with each other every day and share their opinions.

Just like in any community, there is a hierarchy.

Video games rank each person according to their level, skills, hours played, and more.

People want to stand out in order to feel important.

They start to grind every task of the game in order to achieve more skills and traits (to level up their character).

In this way, you have a chance to become superior to your video game friends and others.

These people spend a lot of time doing repetitive activities that are sometimes boring — but they have one goal in mind: to grow in the hierarchy as much as possible.

2) The Progress

Every journey has its difficult moments. You have to find a way to overcome them and continue on your path to success.

Motivation comes and goes. There is no way you can fully relate to it to achieve anything meaningful.

But progress is a loyal friend who’s always telling you the truth even if it hurts.

It has the power to show you are going in the correct or wrong way.

Progress is the real motivation because it shows you that your efforts are little steps toward success.

Video games are masters in showing you that every task you complete is valuable:

• Your gold is stacking.

• Your XP bar starts to fill, getting you closer to the next level.

• Your skills and abilities are getting a little bit better every time.

Progress is all over the place, showing you the task was worth it.

It could be repetitive and boring or a little too hard for you (taking hours to complete) — but in the end… look at the results. Well done!

3) The Flow State

Flow state.

The moment when time flies by, and you fall in love with the process.

Nothing else matters. No stress. No irrelevant thoughts. No other needs.

Just you and the activity. You could do it forever without getting something in return.

Nobody has to tell you when you’re in the flow state. You feel it.

This is the answer to those who wonder how a gamer can play for 16 hours straight.

They love the process, and nothing else matters to them.

But what is that makes games put us in the flow?

We have to understand the framework behind them.

1. You have no idea what’s happening

2. You watch a tutorial, so you don’t get exposed to everything at once

3. You start practising on level one until it gets boring

4. You achieve new skills, traits and abilities to play with

5. You progressively overload the levels until you get bored and decide to quit

Video games are always trying to hit for the best user experience.

They use psychological tricks to achieve it.

One of these is the Goldilocks rule, which states that people experience the peak of motivation when they perform activities with the right difficulty.

Just imagine playing a football game against a 5-year-old kid. The game will start to become boring because it’s too easy for you.

You will win every single time. You always know how it ends.

Now imagine playing the same game against a professional player like Ronaldo or Messi. You will soon be demotivated and give up.

You have no chance to win even a single point. The challenge is too hard for you.

How about playing with someone with the same skills as you? The match is unpredictable.

You can win, and at the same time, you can lose. You really have to put some effort and focus into it to get some points.

This challenge will keep you motivated to keep trying to win the game.

Games know this fact and use it.

Every new level is a little harder than the previous one, but not impossible.

You have the required skills. The only remaining thing is to put some effort into it and to stay focused.

This guarantees that it keeps you motivated to grind all the challenges and tasks.

Gamify your life in 3 simple steps

1) The Feeling of Importance

You have to know your work is appreciated by someone in order to have an extra boost of passion.

One way to achieve it is to join a community specific to your domain of mastery.

It can be an online or physical one. It doesn’t matter as long as you get the desired outcome out of it.

You must share your work and opinions about different topics with the community — so that you can receive feedback and appreciation in return.

You will be part of something.

• Your ideas can make a difference.

• You will feel accepted and your work will have more drive in it.

• You will start to feel important.

This is human nature — we thrive when we are in tribes.

This feeling, as a whole, can be a great motivator.

Especially during difficult times when you feel like your work is meaningless and you have no true purpose.

You can go alone, but in the long run, it is better to have someone or something to support you in difficult situations.

2) The Progress

As you’ve seen before, games track every progress you make, and that’s what makes them interesting.

Your mission is to do the same.

But how do you track the progress?

First of all, you have to clarify your goals to know exactly where you are heading.

Now that you have them. What are the required major steps to accomplish it?

Define those and then break them into smaller tasks for the daily routine.

Feedback is what you’re looking for.

Like in any game some challenges value more than others.

So you have to define the priority for each of the task and assign it points.

Step by step

For example, you want to get in shape.

What are the big steps required for it?

• diet

• gym

Let’s break them down into actionable daily tasks.

• diet → kcal and macronutrients (proteins, carbs, fats)

• gym → PPL workout routine

You can break the task even further into smaller pieces.

For better feedback, we will assign value to them

• kcal — 20 points

• macronutrients — 15 points

  • proteins — 10 points

  • carbs — 2 points

  • fats — 3 points

• workout — 20 points

Do you see how you can play with it?

The maximum amount of points you can get for getting in shape per day is 55.

You have to set up a system to fill the XP bar and level up.

You need base points and a multiplier.

Next Lv = Previous Lv XP * Multiplier

In our example:

Base points (100 XP) and Multiplier (1.5)

level 1 — 100 XP (required to level up)

level 2 — 100 * 1.5 = 150 XP

level 3 — 150 * 1.5 = 225 XP

In this way, you will know exactly how your day went (you can level up).

Do this in every area of your interest. (health, wealth, relationship, etc.)

Milestones.

You can set them to make the game of life more entertaining.

After you reach a certain level, reward yourself with something good.

(Be careful about the reward. It should help you move forward, not bring you down.)

e.g. Level 3 at wealth → buy that expensive business book you wanted

3) The Flow State

You have to feel a little bit challenged by the work for the maximum focus.

If it is too hard, you will soon feel anxious about the situation.

If it is too easy, you will soon feel bored. Your brain will say, “We are wasting time here. Let’s do something else.”.

In both situations, the rate of quitting is very high in the long run.

In the short term, you will have only negative emotions about work.

There has to be a balance between the difficulty and the skills.

You can achieve it through trial and error.

Start easy and gradually increase the challenge.

When you start to see the anxiety coming, step a little bit back.

After some iterations, you will find the sweet spot.

Its difficulty will increase in time as your skills are getting better.

Distractions can get you out of the flow state. To enter back requires time and energy.

It’s wise to keep them away while trying to work in the flow state.

Consider these pillars and implement them into your life. You will have a different view of the world and yourself.

The numbers never lie. Your overall level as a character and the levels of specific areas will show you your progress.

Go and fill that XP bar above your head.

That’s it for today.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Luca