Gamification is the practice of pairing play principles with real world activities to make something more enjoyable and rewarding. 

Here’s how gamification works. When you turn something into a game, the experience becomes focused on passing challenges and advancing levels. Experiencing those challenges allows you to learn lessons and gain skills. And as you navigate the challenges, you get closer to leveling up. Basically, every step in a game is a journey towards your next win. 

The primary appeal of games is that they’re fun and engaging. They’re also intense, sometimes even uncomfortably so. However, that’s a good thing because overcoming these intense experiences feels satisfying.  And facing challenges leads to growth. Embracing this growth is an important element of games. It’s also why applying gamification thinking to everyday situations can be beneficial. It helps you see challenges as opportunities for growth. 

In the context of gamification, challenges are not negative. They actually provide you with a  great advantage. They give you chances to learn and master important skills. By learning these lessons and mastering these skills, you improve your game and your ability to advance in it. You also move closer to your next level.

Basically, here’s a summary of what you experience in a game:

-- You face challenges

-- You learn lessons

-- You gain skills

— You grow stronger
-- and you pass levels! 

An easy way to think about all this is to use the analogy of playing a video game. And Super Mario Brothers is the best example. It has often been referred to as the greatest video game of all time.  It’s little wonder why when you look at it though. That game is a classic representation of gameplay. It’s also a great example of how games parallel life.  

In the Mario brothers games, your character must pass various levels. When you are playing, you must break through brick walls and face big bosses. As you journey through the game, you also have the chance to gain powers when you pick up “Super Mushrooms'.” You do this to improve your strength and resilience. It allows you to survive attacks and rebound from failures or mistakes. Basically, you must do everything that you must do in life if you want to level up! 

The game is a metaphor for how you can approach leveling up in any area of your life. On your way to new levels in life, you’ll face potential failure, various roadblocks, and other people. All of these things will be “challenges” as you work on advancing to that next level. However, if you improve your resilience, develop your strengths and add to your skills, you can get through it all.

Games make looking at life’s challenges a lot more fun. I think looking at life this way is brilliant! And once you see life this way, it’s hard to take off those gamification glasses!

Basically, approaching anything in life as a game is appealing because:

-- games are fun

-- games are engaging

-- games are exciting and often intense
-- games are challenging
–  games provide you with opportunities to “level up”
-- and my favorite reason to approach life as a game is this: games give you the satisfaction of achieving “wins”!  When you approach something as a game, you begin thinking in terms of levels, resources and strategy.  In this module, I’ll introduce you to the idea of gamification, how it works and how it applies to being an agent.

When you approach being an agent this way, you’ll start showing up for yourself in ways that will change your career! You will also learn how to set your goals and strategize to achieve them all. However, one of the greatest benefits of using gamification is the winning agent it can turn you into. You will become the agent who KNOWS how to make winning moves. You’ll KNOW how to strategize. You’ll KNOW how to use your resources.  

When you fully understand gamification and how to apply it to your career, you will personally see how empowering it is. 

It’s time to get started! See you in the first lesson!

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