How to use gamification in life to achieve big goals

Compete with much more experienced opponents

The fiercest competition occurs between the most closely related organisms.

Charles Darwin

We compete with those who are most like us. Therefore, artists do not compete with climbers, but climbers hone their skills in pursuit of other climbers.

In business, small companies are trying to compete with similarly small organizations, and giants are fighting giants.

Easy victories over weak competitors won't help you level up

It is better to compete with those who have gone far ahead compared to you. For example, if you decide to study martial arts, then for free training it is better to choose much stronger opponents. Yes, you will be beaten well, but you will become stronger in a much shorter period of time than the rest of the students.

Your ego shouldn't stop you from growing. This is what the chess player and Taijiquan master Joshua Waitzkin writes about in his book The Art of Learning. Weitzkin called this process investing in failure. He deliberately chose the strongest opponents with whom he could not cope, but gradually, imitating them and repeating their actions, he rose to a higher level.

A similar approach is used by athletes to prepare for endurance competitions. They take more challenging tracks than the routes during the race itself.

Compete with those who are where you want to be, not with people of your level.

Successful people make decisions based on desired outcomes, not current circumstances.

The best compete only with themselves

Tribal Leadership authors Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright explain that most corporate cultures are highly competitive, meaning almost in all organizations, people compete with each other.

All available means are used to help climb the career ladder. People are focused on their goals, not on the goals of the organization. The authors of the book called this behavior the third stage of corporate culture.

Far fewer organizations develop a culture of collaboration within a team and a spirit of competition with outside forces. In such teams, all members are committed to the ideas and goals of the organization. This type of organization is called the fourth stage. Typically, organizations with a culture in the fourth stage dominate structures with a culture in the third stage.

It is very rare for an organization to move to the fifth stage, which implies no competition at all. Such groups of people do unique things, they create their own directions, genres or niches. Their competitors are only themselves, and only their own imaginations can hold them back.

Collaboration brings better results than competition. Gradually, you need to strive to get rid of competition in order to create unique, innovative things.

Find some mentors and solve problems for a while

Mentoring is essential for growth and development. It is advisable to find several mentors to help you in different situations. An experienced mentor will give you assignments and exercises to help you strengthen your weakest points. These can be tasks for a while - the most inconvenient and difficult for you.

Job constraints force you to act faster and put you in a state of flux. In addition to the time limit, you can create other rules to develop specific skills and achieve goals.

If you concentrate on the development of one aspect, then other areas of life will also develop. For example, if you want to improve your parenting qualities, then try every day for a month to be more attentive to your children, to approach their praise more deliberately, and not throw routine phrases. Track your progress and share it with your loved one - this way the exercise will work better.

Teach others to strengthen your knowledge and earn

In Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, the main character, the boy Ender, is trained to become a military leader and strategist. To accelerate learning and consolidate knowledge, Ender at the same time teaches his subordinates using the information he has learned.

In 2007, two articles were published in the journals Science. and Intelligence., in which scientists confirmed that students better remember, understand and apply the knowledge gained if they teach other students. This method was called the protege effect. According to the test results, student teachers performed better than those who studied only for themselves.

People learn while they teach others.

Lucius Annay Seneca

In addition to the benefits of learning quickly, you can also earn money by teaching others. At first, it may seem that no one needs your services, but you can try consulting aspiring entrepreneurs or managers or doing tutoring.

If you want to learn faster, then immediately teach others what you just learned. This will help you adapt your knowledge to different situations and better understand the essence of the transmitted information.

Make major changes every few years

Video games would be boring if each level was the same as the last. Therefore, different worlds and situations are created for your character as you progress through the storyline.

Likewise, you can make major changes in your life. This does not mean that you have to become a completely different person, but you can choose the next step for yourself and change according to it.

Excessive attachment to the past will hold you back. If you don't make big changes, then your life will stop and lose meaning. You will be too comfortable, you will get used to it and stop growing.

Each new step in your life will require a new you.

Leonardo DiCaprio

An example of a great renewal of life is the adoption of children. After such a shock, it takes 2-3 years before complete balance, stability and comfort reappear. These transformations can be intimidating or undesirable, but they allow you to grow. As a result, you adapt to even the most drastic changes.

Most people change slowly and unconsciously - this is inevitable. However, changes often do not mean improvement, and development may not occur. You need to develop yourself consciously, on your own initiative.

Turn life into an interesting game

Life can turn into a game where growth and development is interesting and fun.

An easy game only causes boredom. Likewise, your life will be boring if you don't start to find more and more difficult tasks for yourself. They should be time-limited, reveal your weaknesses and develop your strengths. In addition, thanks to the tasks, you will be able to achieve the set goals that will seem unattainable, but only at first glance.

Playing without fun or inspiration is a bad game, so most of your life should be spent exploring and experimenting. Try something new, take risks, broaden your horizons, meet new people, develop. You are a person, not a machine that exists only to perform the same actions. Check the boundaries of the possible and break them.