I play with pickaxes, swords and chickens.
See, I'm a gamer.
During the family reunion last month, I discovered that my 6-year-old nephew also likes Minecraft, a game where you manipulate pixelated blocks of stone to build castles and fight vines.
After two hours of play and my mother-in-law's subtle advice to let her grandchild play in the yard, I remembered why I was now limiting my screen time.
In my early twenties, I was wasting entire weekends in my bachelor apartment, playing in my boxers. (Sorry ladies, I'm taken.) Then I'd spend the whole week at work thinking about next weekend's virtual adventures.
The nostalgia session with my nephew made me wonder:why so many 'em don't like to work, but have the discipline to play 1,500 rounds of Angry Birds without a bathroom break?
Start 'Em Young
"Here, memorize these dates or you'll end up by living in a van by the river!
I just summed up western education; You're welcome.
Our contempt for discipline begins soon after our first day of school and increases as the stakes are artificially inflated. We are taught to pass arbitrary tests, but not why work matters.
We learn that work is drudgery, something that grows stronger when we step into the real world.
How we take back -we? You can still sell your material possessions and live in a Bhutanese monastery. (I've heard it's hard to get a visa.)
But it's much easier to change your mindset.
I offer a platform that we can all support :Make Fun Work Again Again. Let me show you how.
1. Be clear about your "why".
"The question we should be asking ourselves is not 'How can I stop suffering?' "But" Why do I suffer - for what purpose? “” – Mark Manson
When I quit after 15 years, it was easy.
I failed all nine previous attempts because I had no compelling reason to quit.
Friends warned me of wasting years of my life, and I hated smelling like an ashtray, but I kept smoking because I loved that first dirty puff.
One day I got sick to be a slave to addiction. Taking back control of my life was a powerful reason to quit smoking, and I haven't had a puff in seven years.
With a powerful why, you don't need any discipline to chase this that you want. Whether you're looking for love or a dream job, or decide to play hooky, if the outcome is good enough, you'll hook up and do it.
Take the time to know your reasons.
2. Gamify works.
“We don't stop playing because we get older; we age because we stop playing. -George Bernard Shaw
We grow up and fall in love with sports or video games, and if we're lucky, never outgrow those passions. What is the bread and butter of YouTube? Pranks, extreme sports and fitness feats. We all love to play (or at least watch).
If you make work play, you'll never work another day in your life.
Gamification takes mundane tasks and adds gaming elements , like dot notation. For me, crossing off the to-do's gives me a hit of the 'boosting' hormone that's as strong as a triple shot of espresso.
Not a to-do list fanatic ? Habitica is a free app that turns you into a role-playing hero. Create an avatar and set goals, and you'll progress through levels for real-life achievements, like going to the gym.
What about food? As Will Ferrell says in Elf , “Everything is a toy if you play with it. » Grab a plate and watch the soap bubbles swirl around; experiment with the most efficient way to load the dryer. Enjoy your new toys.
3. Test working styles.
“Style is something each of us already has, all we have to do is find it. —Diane von Furstenberg
I do my best work early in the morning with long periods of calm. My wife is the most creative in the evening. Some people need to chat for an hour before work and some only work behind closed doors.
Experiment with different working styles and you will find one that makes discipline effortless.
Here's what your experience might look like:
Day 1:Get up an hour earlier and work on a project.
Day 2:Stay up an hour later to work.
Day 3:Use the Pomodoro method all day.
Day 4:Work without a timer and let your natural rhythms guide your work.
Day 5:Do important tasks in the morning.
Day 6:Do routine tasks in the morning.
You can also experiment with working indoors or outdoors, with music or quiet, completing five tasks in a day or sticking to one.
Keep a written journal each day of what you felt, your energy levels, what worked and what didn't. After a week, you will have useful data on your best working styles.
4. Banish worry and procrastination.
“Worry drains the mind of much of its power, and sooner or later it hurts the soul. —Robin Sharma
Worry is the best way to kill discipline. An anxious mind cannot do a good job because it is full of cortisol, the fight, flight, or freezing hormone.
Fear of failure and feeling overwhelmed then leads to procrastination, Discipline's unemployed cousin.
To kill this two-headed beast, use Neil Fiore's best research on habits The Now Habit :
Use the unplanned schedule:block time in your calendar to play, rest and have fun with friends before you plan the work, and you will avoid this feeling of being overwhelmed.
Make worry work:face your fears and they crumble. Instead of ruminating, set aside time to “catastrophize”:what's the worst that can happen? Then create a risk management plan.
Just keep going:look at a project as a whole and it's overwhelming. Instead, sit down with the intention of starting a single task, not finishing. You may find that four hours slip by effortlessly.
5. Make self-care non-negotiable.
“You can't take care of anything or anyone if you don't take care of yourself. —Jen Sincero
Hard work is laudable, but it becomes workaholic when we prioritize it over our health and happiness; on life.
“Protect the asset” is one of the cardinal rules of cutting-edge artists according to Greg McKeown in his book, Essentialism . Take the time to sleep, eat healthy, massage, rest and go on vacation, and your good (you) will be able to maintain a constant output.
Work while you are tired, exhausted or frustrated, and you can't enjoy it or produce anything of quality.
Work rested, invigorated, upbeat, and in a good mood, and you'll not only enjoy every minute of your work, but you'll be able to tap into the creativity that is the source of all great work.
6. Play offense, not defense.
“Are you working on your own to-do list, or are you letting everyone else write your to-do list for you?” —Chris Sacca, Billionaire Investor
In 2018, I organized a monthly meeting of writers in a café with brick walls and large windows. Our attendance was growing, and so were leads for my company's services for writers.
Then a new cafe manager took over and cleared roadblocks. We had to sign a contract… Guarantee minimum bar sales… Bring our own bartender and point of sale equipment. Every hoop I jumped created another.
My new enemy had put me on defense.
I surveyed my limbs and found they didn't care where where we used to meet, so we changed places and I moved on with my life.
When you're fighting time vampires, you can't focus on your most important tasks. I started working exclusively on high-value tasks and ignoring defense. Everything went very well.
7. Show yourself.
“Here I did. —Seth Godin
Social media is both a delirious and a showy place. Let's admit that we all like to share our victories with the world. It feels good.
Indeed, when we post pictures of our newborn baby or the suitcase full of diamonds we found, our brains overflow with serotonin, the hormone that encourages prosocial behavior.
“Serotonin is a feeling of pride,” says Simon Sinek. “It is the feeling we get when we perceive that others like or respect us. It makes us feel strong and confident, like we can take on anything. »
As long as you don't leave your primary motivation becomes respect for others, it can be healthy to share your results with the world.
Saying "Here I did this" is fun and will inspire you to produce more.
What can You Expect If You Practice These Seven Habits? You'll never "work" another day in your life.
Alan Watts broke my brain with his lecture on work as play.
"Consider everything you do as play", he said. "And don't imagine for a minute that you have to be serious. ”
Work can make it feel like a kid on the playground again. Make it play.
