"Level Up Your Life: Play games and build Life and Leadership Skills

In today's digital age, gaming has become a universal pastime, holding millions of children and adults captive for hours at a time. While we are all more than familiar with the potential harmful effects of gaming—I think we miss out on the potentially hugely beneficial lessons we can learn from “thoughtful” gaming. In this article, we'll explore how gaming features can shape our approach to life and leadership, especially with children, and highlighting gaming's potential as a tool for learning and development. Join us on this journey to discover how gaming can help you level up your life with confidence and resilience.

Goal Achievement : All games have goals. Games present players with clear objectives to achieve, teaching the importance of goal setting in life and leadership. Understanding the importance of setting goals that are increasingly challenging and relevant is one of the most important processes not only in leadership, but in life. It’s also the most ignored aspect of leadership. Just as in games, where achieving goals leads to progress and satisfaction, setting and pursuing goals in real life drives personal and professional growth

Overcoming Challenges and Difficulty Levels: encountering challenges and facing levels of increasing difficulty are another key feature of games, as in life. Getting used to the idea that life and work just like games will only get more complex and require higher levels of skills, resources and sheer practice teach individuals to embrace change and challenges, fostering adaptability and resilience. It teaches people that overcoming tougher challenges brings a sense of accomplishment, leading to personal growth and development.[1]

Teamwork and Collaboration: Many RPG (Role Playing Games) and Multiplayer games require virtual strangers to communicate, collaborate and work cohesively to achieve success in the game they are playing, teaching individuals the value of collaboration in both life and leadership. Learning to communicate effectively, delegate tasks, and leverage each other's strengths leads to collective success. Another valuable leadership lesson that people learn in games like PubG is how to take the team along with them. Going back to revive a team mate, sometimes at the cost of your own “life” teaches the importance of taking the team along with you, an invaluable leadership lesson

Failure Tolerance and Resilience: Failure is inevitable in gaming. And the inability to move ahead in the game without overcoming that failure teaches individuals to bounce back stronger and more resilient. Children and indeed adults can learn to overcome the fear of failure and embrace failure as an opportunity for growth. It can transform people’s perspective of failure into just opportunities to build new skills and resources which will stay with them into the future.?

Starting Anew: Gaming teaches us that failure is not the end but a chance to start anew. Losing a “life” in a game is not seen as the end of the world, instead players learn that they need to give themselves a break, rest, restore their resources and start again. ?Instead of giving up, individuals learn to embrace failure as a stepping stone to success, armed with newfound knowledge and experience. A UN study of nearly 13,000 players across 12 countries, found that 71% felt video games serve as a stress reliever, 55% as a means to combat isolation, and 64% turn to games to help them face everyday challenges

Self-Mastery and Personal Development: The ultimate opponent in all games (even where you may be playing other opponents) is yourself, teaching individuals that true success lies in self-mastery and personal development. By focusing on improving their own skills and strengths, individuals can overcome obstacles with confidence. Even leaderboards which inherently give people a view of how they measure up against others, only serve as motivation to improve ourselves – build new and innovative skills and unlock new resources and achievements. In life this builds the habit of searching out opportunities to build new skills and persevere until you master those skills.

Time, Resource Management and Strategic Planning: Many games have time constraints or deadlines, teaching individuals the importance of time management and prioritization. Learning to allocate time effectively leads to greater efficiency and productivity in both gaming and real-life tasks. Games often require players to manage limited resources and make strategic decisions to progress. This teaches valuable lessons in resource optimization, prioritization, and decision-making, which are applicable in real-life scenarios.

In conclusion, gaming features offer a wealth of insights into resilience, self-mastery, and success. From setting goals and overcoming challenges to embracing failure and fostering teamwork, the skills honed through gaming are directly applicable to real-life scenarios. By recognizing and harnessing the lessons learned from gaming experiences, individuals can navigate challenges with confidence, seize opportunities for growth, and ultimately achieve their full potential.

As with all things, they key is balance. There is always a risk that excessive gaming can be addictive. But the same UN study shows that the old idea of gaming as evil, is no longer true. Instead, it has shown several positive impacts on mental well being, stress relief and creativity.

Rather than treating gaming as an evil to be feared, parents and educators can harness its potential as a tool for learning and development. Engaging in open and constructive discussions about gaming experiences can help children understand the positive lessons gleaned from games, such as resilience, strategic thinking, and teamwork. Debrief game play like a facilitator would. Discuss lessons learnt, reflect on their gaming experiences and apply the lessons learned to real-life situations. By doing this, parents and educators can empower children to internalize and thoughtfully process the learning that comes with having fun!

At Breakfree Consulting, we incorporate all elements of gameplay into our learning design and training delivery.

Contact us for more information and insights on how we can help you #GamifyyourLearning.

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Breakfree Consulting (I) Pvt Ltd Raj Verma (Corporate Hippie)

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[1] https://unric.org/en/video-games-and-mental-health-a-surprising-ally/#:~:text=The%20study%2C%20which%20surveyed%20nearly,help%20them%20face%20everyday%20challenges.