Last week I wanted to start a discussion on video games, and not just how they can negatively affect your real life, but the positive impact that gaming skills can have.
This week, I want to start to answer the question of how you can use the positives of gaming to help you in other aspects of your life.
Winning
When you level up it feels great, doesn’t it? So start winning in real life. Create pathways for rewards for things that are important to you.
These small rewards will give you the drive and ambition to go out and get it. So, want to hoover the lounge but can’t wait to see the next episode of Stranger Things? Make the season finale your reward once you’ve done the hoovering.
And you’ll find that the more you do this you are then physically changing the parts of your brain linked to rewards and it will become second nature.
Critical thinking
Any game has one solid rule or goal, you must solve a problem to move forward within the game.
Now, this is unsurprisingly a reasonable expectation for moving forward in real life also. So, critical thinking – or rather working out ways to solve problems, is a very useful skill to gain from playing video games.
Work ethic
A Lot of games nowadays require a lot of commitment, so why not bring this into your real life too?
It’s a lot of work to start up again, work as hard as possible to succeed, but likely fail several times only to pick yourself up and try again.
Confidence
With this strong work ethic, you also have the gained confidence to try many different journeys or methods to succeed.
If you have that confidence in your gaming worlds then the leap isn’t as big as you might think to bring it into the real world.
Have many people told you in your game-chat that you’re hilarious and know what you’re talking about most of the time?
That is the real you, just with confidence in something you’re passionate about, so it is in you to bring out more often.
Fearlessness
With confidence naturally comes a lack of fear to fail. And this is a very powerful life skill to achieve, so it’s as important to embrace it in your day-to-day.
Unafraid of what’s to come around the corner in Fortnite? Then why should you be afraid of that presentation to the office next week?
<h3> Gaming skills </h3>
All of these skills are cross applicable to disciplines not just in video games. So it’s unfortunate that many of you might find it hard to use them in everyday life. It might feel like you’re out of your depth in the real world and like there is more to lose – but ask yourself, is there really more to lose by being more confident and fearless?
