#gameful creativity

[thegamefulguru]

Working On Myself (With Some Help From My Friends)

Hey everyone,

So Mission 4 is still underway, albeit in a no-frills fashion. (There was no way to not make a pun, so I went with this one.) I’m trying to be intentional each day at getting an ever-developing list of tasks done, to get myself closer to reaching my personal and professional goals. As of right now, I’m looking into teaching certification programs in my area, so I can start working in a classroom full time. It’s exciting and scary but I’m doing my best and trying to fend off depression and anxiety any way I can. 

One way I’m doing it is with regular exercise. I’ve been given a challenge for the month: work out twenty times in the month of February. So far, I’ve gotten three days, but I started this past Friday, so I’ve still got a shot. I planned on working out today, but I momentarily lost my wallet and panic ensued.

Support Opportunity: To make up for missing today, I’ll do 2 push ups for every note on this post, so if you see this post, shoot me a like or reblog!

I’ve got some reading to get done for my class tomorrow and I’d like to do some writing tonight as well, so give me a hand with my decision making process!

Support Opportunity: Between these three options, what should I spend at least 30 minutes writing about?

1. A Gameful Guru Review of Undertale

2. A Reordered Rewatch Post About LoK Book 1

3. A Miscellaneous Writing Prompt 

Shoot me a message with your vote, or reblog for an added exercise bonus!

With any luck, some regular and direct self-care will help me fight off my anxiety demons and have something cool to show you by the end of the week.

Until next time, suffer less and grow more,

Sincerely, Sam, The Gameful Guru

[thegamefulguru]

Name Your Challenge: In Which I Back Away From Task 3

Hey guys,

So I’ve been going back and forth about the task I gave myself at the start of this mission, which was to share with you the product of my Allied support this past weekend, but a lot of that had to do with the fact that the project I wanted to share with you, is my TED Talk. Given I’m nowhere close to being done with it, and it’s going to take me at least another month before it’s in a shape where I’d feel comfortable performing it for any audience, I’ve decided not to go through with that self-imposed challenge. 

This isn’t because I don’t trust you or don’t want your feedback, but because it really makes me feel this sort of primal avoidance and fear to show someone a work in progress. There are plenty of relevant idioms I could use to illustrate how I feel about it, but the basic idea is that showing you what I have now will place a mental lock in me about what my talk can or should be about. I am not attached to any part of my talk at the moment, aside from some thematic generalities and maybe a few key points, so how can I expect myself to find extensive feedback from all of you helpful or palatable? I don’t want to waste your time, or my energy, doing something that won’t be helpful.

Challenges are things we take on because we want something out of the pursuit of goals. We believe that we’ll grow, or earn some reward from doing something that may immediately feel beyond us. In all my avoidance of this particular challenge, I’ve lost sight of my goals. I want to create, be inspired, take care of myself, be disciplined and have fun. All of these goals are worth pursuing, and that’s what I should be focusing on. I’ve done the work. It’s time to get onto the next challenge.

Thank you to all who have supported me so far, and in this past week in particular. You know who you are.

I’ll be posting a Gameful Guru Review later this evening, for those of you who are into that.

Until next time, suffer less and grow more.

Sincerely, Sam, The Gameful Guru

[thegamefulguru]

Mission 3 Progress!

So the Snowpocalypse in TN is distressing and beautiful and I’m getting really scared about climate change, y’all. But mostly I want to eat grilled cheeses on croissant bread from now till the end of time. Though things got shifted over a day because of scheduling conflicts, I did some work with my Comrade @amongst-the-lies this morning and I’ve got a Critic lined up to give me feedback. I’ll be whipping my project into readable (and commentable) shape sometime this weekend. In the mean time, I’ll be putting up a link to the next of my ATLA posts (2/3 for Book 1!). I’m watching Book 2 of Korra with my Dad as well, and then I’ll move on to Book 2 of ATLA. Until next time, suffer less and grow more,

Sincerely, Sam, The Gameful Guru

[thegamefulguru]

Mission 2: Week In Review

So a week and mission has come and gone, and I have a few things to show for it, but not everything I set out to accomplish. My gaming diet has been healthy, though a little gluttonous toward the end, and my writing and drawing habit fell apart partway through the week. I do have some things to celebrate, but first I want to connect back to a theme in line with this blog’s mission.

Namely, how do we deal with failure gamefully? How can we learn, as we do when we play games, to fail better, to “fail forward” so to speak?

At the end of Quest 6, I wrote about Quest After-Care and dealing with failure.

After my big long personal essay, here were my recommendations:

Celebrate the person who survived the failure, and activate a Power Up for every form of resilience you hoped that Quest would have bolstered.

Identify what forces, internal and external, held you back from achieving your goals, make a Bad Guy Battle Plan, and take it on again another day.

Connect with others through Social Support, or even one of your Guides if you feel in need of guidance, counsel or more focused direction.

I’ve been playing a lot more games lately, taking on challenges and being patient with myself when I’ve failed in-game, but I haven’t always been as patient with myself when it comes to out of game failures. All sorts of negative self-talk and self-treatment came up. I hadn’t exercised much, and in my feelings of anxiety surrounding the lack of time to make up for my laziness, I “rewarded” myself with games, food, distraction. Really, I was letting anxiety and avoidance, two of my most pestering and pernicious Bad Guys, take hold.

I’m going to celebrate once I get done with this post, but first, I’ve gotta do some identifying of my challenges and obstacles from this past week.

Here are three things I think can improve upon going forward:

I can make goals that are specifically time-focused, but more broad in scope.

This was something I learned informally in the first Mission, when I was first designing Tasks. My reflection didn’t end up being 700-1000 words, and that’s okay. A 4 pages full color comic was a big task, and I took it on because that’s what I wanted to do. I gave myself a word count in order to be specific, but specificity has different effects depending on how it is applied. I’m going to return to the Task system for the upcoming Mission, but I’m going to do so strongly.

I can use daily habits to work toward meaningful Journey-long goals.

This Mission I laid out what I want to accomplish with this Journey, and how building habits can help me accomplish my goals. This week was about helping me inch a little bit forward in those pursuits, and it was successful in that regard, on some counts. Now that I’m aware of what needs to be done, I can give myself more meaningful tasks, ie “Write and storyboard three pages of Legacy of Steel by Thursday,” “Prepare for a mock TED Talk with family by Sunday” etc.

I can set forgiving goals that take unpredictable elements into account.

Let the record show that I acknowledge how challenging it is to get work done on the weekend. Special events, social opportunities, unforeseen choices abound, and it’s sometimes hard to motivate yourself to just get up early enough to get work done before going and doing something else. So rather than program myself down to the minute, I will set goals that enable me to have more flex time, especially when it comes to the weekends.

Now, I did get some things accomplished with regards to my TED Talk, and even my drawing project. I have an outline due to the TEDxDenisonU people this week and I can say with confidence that I’ve already done most of it. That’s worth celebrating, but it’s a new work, and I’ve gotta get back down to business.

I may reach out to some of you for some help in the upcoming Mission, and I hope you’ll do the same! Remember, seeking social support is not the same as co-dependency :)

Until next time, suffer less and grow more.

Sincerely, Sam, The Gameful Guru

[thegamefulguru]

Mission 2 Day 5 Check In

Today has mostly been a game focused day, which is a form of self care as well as a source of inspiration for me. I did some writing work for my TED Talk, and got to talk about it with my English teacher from middle school! Progress: 2/4 LOS Characters Drawn 16/20 ATLA Book 1 Episodes 0/2 Gym Days / 4 Walk Days 2/3 Book Days 5/7 Game Days A more substantial post will be coming soon. Hope everyone has had a good healthy week! Until next time, suffer less and grow more. Sincerely, Sam, The Gameful Guru

[thegamefulguru]

Mission 2 Day 3 Check In

Creativity 1/2 (Need to draw) Inspiration 1/1 (watched ATLA) Self-Care 1/1 (Walked and listened to Yu-Kai Chou's talk on gamification) Discipline 0/1 (Gonna read Gulf Coast after dinner) Fun (Gonna play Final Fantasy Tactics Advance or Theatrhythm Final Fantasy before bed) Progress: 2/4 LOS Color Characters 15/20 ATLA Book 1 episodes 0/2 Gym Days 1/3 Book Hours 3/7 Game Days If you're playing along at home, feel free to reblog and come up with your own Habit categories! You can borrow mine and give yourself different objectives and goals or you can go some completely different direction! Until next time, suffer less and grow more. Sincerely, Sam, The Gameful Guru

[thegamefulguru]

The How And Why Of Gameful Goal Setting

Sorry that this post is overdue, let’s get down to it -- I mentioned that I would be working toward certain goals over the course of this Journey, connected to those Ongoing Habits from the last post (more on those later), but it’s time to get Specific about what those goals are.

Goal 1 (Creativity) I want to follow through with meaningful creative projects Goal Objectives: Write and Storyboard Legacy of Steel prologue Draft, Revise and Submit 1 WPWT Short Story for Publication Outline, Draft, Workshop and Perform TED Talk

Goal 2 (Inspiration) I want to fuel my creative energies by reflecting on influences Goal Objectives: Complete Reordered Rewatch of ATLA / LOK Write and post 3 short essays per book Complete a concluding reflection comic about Avatar and myself

Goal 3 (Self-Care) I want to engage in powerful self-care on a regular basis Goal Objectives: Improve aerobic fitness by exercising daily Reach out to a friend daily, make plans with friends regularly Listen to good music daily, and tidy up space regularly

Goal 4 (Discipline) I want to build discipline by being creatively diligent Goal Objectives: Read at least three books between now and March Submit at least three pieces of writing for publication Maintain blog schedule, uploading posts regularly

Goal 5 (Fun) I want to enjoy a gameful life Goal Objectives: Play at least 7 hours of games per week Attend at least one Nashvile Gaymers event Outline and Play Test a home-made T.I.M.E Stories mission

The difference between this set of goals and my previous set of goals (which are still ongoing, albeit less focused on) is that my ‘growth parameters’ are no longer dependent on other people’s effort. The objectives I’ve set are good for this Journey, but they might change in future journeys, to reflect shifting moods or ambitions.

Now, in my experience good goals should follow the same standards we hold good Quests to. Namely, we must ask if our goals are SMART: Specific, Meaningful, Adaptive, Realistic, Time-Focused. So far I’ve got Specific, Meaningful and Adaptive down, but the last two letters are a bit more complicated, because they’re related.

The thought of doing something “daily” is a challenging one for me. Sure, I eat three meals a day on a daily basis, I attend to bodily functions, but those are things I don’t have to think about much. But for some reason, sitting down to read a book every day for an hour, even if I have ample time to do so, is hard to do.

It’s important when you set goals to be specific, sure, which generally means “I’m going to do a thing this many times/for this many days” but there’s no way of knowing if that specificity is realistic until you give it an honest try.

I overwhelmed myself with things to start doing at the start of this week, giving myself a whopping five Ongoing Habits, and I did it in a post wherein I told all of you how hard habits were for me. That wasn’t realistic, and that didn’t set me up to succeed.

So far between Monday and Tuesday, I’ve consistently fulfilled my commitment to three of the five goals, Creativity, Self-Care and Fun, while avoiding Inspiration and Discipline. Most of my resistance comes in the form of a voice in my head saying, “I’m already disciplined, I write all the time! I’m always inspired! ” And that voice isn’t entirely wrong. But in order to build more discipline, and in order to temper my creativity, I have to continue to challenge myself to do things that are hard for me. 

But I don’t have to throw myself to the wolves on Day 1.

So let’s revisit those habits, and look at some as-of-yet unmentioned Tasks already in progress (* denotes renamed Habit)

Creativity: Picture and a Thousand Words (Fill a page with words or pictures)

Inspiration: Episodic Reflection (Watch a show (ATLA), with intention)

Self-Care: Walk and Talk* (Do some TED research on the move)

Discipline: Literary Training* (Read a book, read a book, read a motha****in book)

Fun: Daily Game Time (Get your game on, daily)

Now for the Tasks:

This week I’ve already started a small project for Creativity which is to draw the four main characters of Legacy of Steel in full color, so I’m going to continue on with that.

Inspiration: I’ve watched some Avatar, but I haven’t written stuff about it in weeks, so a post or preferably two might need to be attended to using my daily 1000 words. To summarize: I will finish Avatar Book 1 and write two short essays about it this week.

Self-Care: I’ve gone on two morning walks, but I haven’t been to the gym since Saturday. With my remaining weekdays, I want to go to the gym at least twice, doing neighborhood walks on days I don’t make it.

Discipline: I have until January 21st to read a significant portion of my Gulf Coast lit mag, and that’s really not much time at all. This week I want to spend two hours reading from the Lit Mag, and make it through as much of it as I can.

Fun: As long as I get Daily Game Time in, I’ll be good, but in later weeks I’m going to do some work on my T.I.M.E Stories mission with my friend Taylor.

Looking at the above tasks, I’ve got a healthy load, but I’m giving myself a less rigorous load than my initial habits appeared to give me. Working our 4 days a week, reading 4 hours a week might not be difficult by February, but right now they’re downright daunting. So let’s see how this week goes!

I’ll update you on how it goes, good or bad, later today!

Until next time, suffer less and grow more.

Sincerely, Sam, The Gameful Guru