We all have goals we want to achieve in life. When you’re feeling dragged down or lacking motivation, a change in mindset can help you achieve your goals, and have fun while you’re doing it.
There was a game I used to play over twenty years ago called Contra. Now this game had a cheat code you could use that gave you every weapon and made you invincible so that you couldn’t die.
UP-UP-DOWN-DOWN-LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT-RIGHT-B-A-START
You might be thinking – “Well, what’s the point of that?”
I used that cheat code every time, over and over again. Each time I used the cheat code, I knew I was going to win, but it was still fun. It wasn’t just a matter of winning, but challenging myself to see how high of a score I could get.
You can use this approach to achieve your smallest and biggest goals in life.
Gamify Life
When you gamify life, you make it fun, you make it winnable.
How do you do this?
By setting specific goals and rewarding yourself when you achieve them.
Say you’re trying to spend less on your monthly food budget. You spent $100 on groceries this week, your goal for next week is to spend less than $80.
You make it into a game, and doesn’t it feel great when you beat your goal and win?
Set yourself up to win by tracking your weekly food expenses, and at the end of the month, you can see how much you saved.
Not only is it satisfying to see that you’ve met or exceeded your goals, but you can reward yourself even further with a nice dinner or a vacation.
Use Tools That Help You Win
You can even gamify your health and nutrition goals by using tools like the “My Fitness Pal” app.
When I did a sixty-day keto challenge, I tracked everything I ate on that app. This allowed me to see the times when I was about to miss the mark on meeting my goals, and then challenge myself to get there.
You can even track how many days a month you go to the gym, and reward yourself when you meet a certain milestone.
Now, this is a system that worked for me, but you have to find ways to make it work for you.
Think about how you can track some of your goals, and come up with a system that works for your individual needs.
You make the rules so that you can win.
This system allows you to not only achieve more but have fun while you’re doing it. So have fun with goal setting, with planning, and with time management. Create simple ways to track your progress, and reward yourself accordingly.
You can also try using a planner, whether it’s a paper one or a digital one. At the beginning of the day write down all the things you want to accomplish, pick a big three or a focus five. Write down the things you want to get done, then every time you hit a goal, you check the box, or cross it off.
Now isn’t that satisfying?
Much like a dog, humans are motivated by reward. Sometimes we have to work with our reward systems to fight off habits like procrastination and make working towards our goals fun.
Rewards don’t have to be something big, they can even be something like stepping outside for some fresh air, going out for a cup of coffee, or checking social media.
Make Your Goals Winnable
When setting goals, make sure they are “winnable”. For larger goals, you can help yourself by setting up smaller daily milestones, along with weekly and monthly ones as well.
If there are twenty-one things that you wanted to get done in a week, and you got eighteen done – awesome job! Can you do nineteen next week?
Every task that you do, every day that you spend working towards your goals is a day of your life, why not make it as enjoyable as can be?
When you track your goals and make them winnable, you start to lose that heavy feeling of procrastination, the dreaded “I don’t feel like it”, and instead start to feel excited and uplifted about your life.
Conspire With Yourself
A little competition never hurt anybody. It may just help you.
The word competition comes from a Latin word meaning “to conspire within”. This understanding of the spirit of competition is an invitation to work with yourself or with other people to achieve your goals.
Use that competitive spirit to your advantage, and reward yourself along the way.
Now get out there and make it fun!
