Everything Is A Game (Here's How To Play) — Part IV
VII. Meta Progression
Even when we're 'just playing a game', we like to feel like we're working towards something greater than just the moment we're currently experiencing.
Every time we complete a mission or quest, defeat an enemy, or gain experience points, we are taking a step towards that bigger goal, towards a greater purpose.
This is true whether it's a goal that is created by the game for you (finishing the main story of the game, for example), or it's a goal you've created for yourself (perhaps you want to complete the game or reach max level with every character class, or you add your own self-imposed limitations, or you want to beat the game on the highest difficulty setting).
No matter how innately fun the game is, it's going to lose its 'sizzle' if nothing has a greater meaning it's working towards. That's not to say literally everything has to serve a greater purpose; it's nice to have those moments of 'just for pure fun' in a game, and even playing those 'party' games — Mario Kart or Mario Party, for example — just for having fun with friends and family.
(I realize that there are people that play Mario Kart competitively, but I think for the majority of us it's a casual game we play on occasion.)
This sort of 'fun for fun's sake' is important in its own right — but this isn't what keeps many of us playing the same game for dozens, hundreds and even thousands of hours. Meta Progression is what keeps us coming back. Every individual action we take, every small to medium sized goal accomplished or milestone achieved, is working toward a greater purpose beyond itself.
A goal becomes meaningful when we decide it's meaningful to us. Nobody else can tell you that your goal is unimportant.
Without a long term meaningful goal, without a greater purpose, one single workout can feel meaningless or like it's not going to accomplish much.
This is why it's so powerful to start or reignite your fitness journey by doing these two things:
1. Identify why you are going on this fitness journey to begin with. Assign a deeper meaning to it:
Are you tired of feeling tired all the time?
Do you struggle with keeping up with your kids, or feel like you're limited in what you can do with them due to a lack of physical fitness?
Do you have health issues that impact your quality of life, or present serious health risks, that can largely or completely be reversed through exercise and nutrition?
Do you not feel comfortable in your own skin?
Do you want to feel strong, look strong, and be strong?
These are common examples that I've heard over the years of doing hundreds of consultations — some of these might resonate with you, but remember you get to define your 'why' — nobody else can do it for you. You will probably have more than one 'why'.
2. Identify a Quest to go on — a specific, meaningful goal, and a plan to achieve it.
Working out without a goal and plan will net you some benefit, but it's like sailing without navigation — you'll get somewhere, but probably not where you want to get to (or at best, it'll take you much longer to get there).
Your Why is your purpose; your Quest gives you a path to aim that purpose toward. Your Why is your Compass; your Quest is your Map.
VIII. Enjoyment
This may be the most obvious-sounding reason of all. Of course a game is better the more enjoyable it is, right? Stay with me, there is a point to this.
There's a difference between 'fun' and 'enjoyment'. Someone might find fishing to be an enjoyable use of their time. But, much of fishing is simply sitting around and waiting. Taking in the scenery and fresh air. Enjoying the stillness; relaxing and doing nothing in particular for some of the time. Of course there is the 'fun' part of it when you do get a bite and you need to actively engage and reel in your catch.
You might have 'fun' parts of a game you're playing, where the action is intense, there's lots of flashy graphics on screen, and so on. Then you likely have other parts of the game that are 'enjoyable'. Maybe it's a lower-intensity type of gameplay where you get to just 'chill', and enjoy the environment or music.
Using God of War: Ragnarok as an example:
'Fun': an intense combat sequence or intricate puzzle
'Enjoyable': Rowing the canoe through a long stretch of water, taking in the scenery and sound of the water, and the short conversations between Kratos, Atreus and Mimir.
RuneScape:
'Fun': Raids, the Hallowed Sepulchre, Group or Solo Bossing
'Enjoyable': Low-intensity resource collecting, like Woodcutting or Fishing
Diablo and other aRPGs:
'Fun': Killing stuff.
'Enjoyable': Customizing your build, upgrading and crafting items, theorycrafting new builds
In my opinion, a great game balances periods of fun with periods of enjoyment. If everything is '100% on' all the time, it loses its edge. You're probably not going to play a game for hundreds if not thousands of hours, for years on end (whether it's constant or on again, off again), unless you have those periods of enjoyment within the game.
In the same vein - you probably won't stick to a habit for months and years on end unless you do it in such a way that you enjoy doing it.
This is why I'm against short term, 'hardcore', get-fit-quick programs or strategies. Whether it be an insane workout program, like working out for 2 hours a day 7 days a week, or some overly restrictive diet that you plan on doing for a few months.
There's a 99% chance you won't even finish that plan anyway — I can't tell you how many times someone has told me about a restrictive nutrition plan or excessive exercise plan that they are starting, only to have it not last more than a week or two.
Even if you did manage to stick to it for a few months... the rest of your life still remains. What are you going to do AFTER you are done with this unsustainable plan? Most people haven't thought about this ahead of time. Most people go back to exactly what they were doing before — and end up exactly as they were before.
Remember, you are what you repeatedly do. Not what you did that one time for 30 days. The only time you should even consider an intentionally unsustainable push or 'sprint', is after you've already developed sustainable exercise and nutrition habits. This way, when you go back to 'what you were doing before', it's still a pretty healthy baseline.
You have to establish that healthy baseline first. You'll get incredible results from establishing this 'healthy baseline' anyway. That's the 'secret' that's become so clear to me from listening to anyone who has done something for a particularly long period of time very consistently, especially if they are very, very good at that thing.
It doesn't matter what it is:
Video Games
Music
Sports
Fitness
Business
Or literally any other venture or hobby you can think of.
The people who stick with it for the long haul, and the people that are the best, have one thing in common.
They enjoy doing it. That's how they keep doing it for years and decades. It's not through force or discipline. It's because they want to keep doing it. Even in a case such as a professional athlete, they are usually not primarily driven by 'winning'. And it's not 'not losing', either. They are driven by becoming better, constantly. Being the best that they can be. Because they love the game, and they love improvement. This is just what happens to lead to winning.
'What if I don't enjoy fitness?' You might say. 'What if I'm not a "fitness person"?'
Nobody does, at first. Nobody is, at first.
An interesting thing about enjoyment is that you will often start to enjoy something more simply by continuing to do it. I can't tell you how many times I'd hear clients say something along the lines of "you know, for the first few weeks I wasn't looking forward to my workouts. Now, I can't wait to do my workout. It's a highlight of my day."
By exposing yourself to it enough times, and approaching it with an open mind, you will start to pick up bits and pieces that stick out to you. You'll start to see yourself improve, and that alone will make the process more enjoyable — knowing that each workout is giving you some XP towards your next Fitness level.
You'll start to associate the feelings of your muscles burning, and heavy breathing, with self-improvement.
It also helps that we naturally just feel better after exercising — our bodies are meant to move, our lungs and heart are meant to be worked, our muscles are meant to contract. We are meant to push ourselves physically every so often.
Having both long term and short term goals helps the enjoyment process, too. I actually don't like working out a whole lot if I don't have a goal I'm aiming towards. And here I'm referring to short-term, 'process' goals. A number of reps to aim for on one set. Something challenging but within my reach (this is the Challenge-Skill Match principle from Part III). This is why it's important to keep track of what you do in your workouts — so you can set a goal based on your previous performance. I'm not special in this regard. It's been repeatedly shown to improve performance when you have a clear target to aim towards.
Not only does it improve performance, it makes it more enjoyable. We crave challenge. We enjoy it. At the very least, you enjoy the feeling after completing something challenging — you feel a sense of accomplishment.
I hope you're starting to see how all of the Eight Principles tie into one another. More importantly, I hope you see, either through the examples I've been giving throughout the series, or through your own examples you've come up with, that these principles can be applied to anything.
This isn't just how you make a great game; this is how you make anything great. This is how you design anything in your life, to get the most out of it.
The truth is, we don't have to make life into a game. It already is one. It always has been and always will be. Most of us have just forgotten, or never realized it to begin with.
It's always been the other way around. Video games are based on life. We just found ways to turn things humans find fun and rewarding into pixels and controllers.
—Shane
