Why Are Video Games Absorbing and Work Not?
Written by Thomas Christopher
Friday, 12 June 2009 14:49
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Why don't people playing video games get distracted by work, rather than the other way around? More importantly, if we can understand why, can we use the knowledge to make productive work more attractive?
Saying that video games are more fun does not convey enough information. It's the kind of fun that matters.
Video games are absorbing. For insight into absorbing activities, let's look at Professor Csikszentmihalyi's research into what he called "flow" Flow is that condition in which you are totally occupied with the task you are doing. It has its name because people interviewed about it most frequently described the experience as being "in the flow." A flow experience has two benefits:
First, it promotes your happiness. This is a bit strange, because while you're in the flow you are not happy -- indeed you're not feeling any emotion. You are totally absorbed in your activity. You are not conscious of yourself. Nevertheless, people who spend a lot of time in the flow are happier the rest of the time.
Second, flow promotes your growth. As we shall see in a moment, to remain in the flow you must keep increasing your competence.
There are four conditions for flow. First, the activity you are involved in cannot be too complex. If it is too difficult for you, you will become anxious and drop out of the flow state.
Second, the activity cannot be too simple. If it is too simple, you will become bored and drop out of the flow state.
Third, you must always know what to do next. If you must pause to ponder what your next move is, that in itself will get you out of the flow.
Fourth, you must get immediate feedback on how well you are doing. You must be occupied with current activity and not looking back wondering how well you did nor looking ahead wondering how well you will have done.
While you're in the flow, you are practicing an activity, and as you practice the activity, you are gaining competence. That means that in order to remain in the flow, the activity must be getting more complex; otherwise, it would become too simple, you would become bored, and you would fall out of the flow. This is the way flow leads to growth.
Flow is a most satisfying state to be in. People seek it out. Given the opportunity, people will gravitate towards flow activities.
Flow is like a secular mystical state. The "Eighth Step" on the Buddhist eight-fold path is "right absorption." These games might be considered "wrong absorption," but absorption they are nonetheless.
In the current economic situation, many people are in a state very unlike flow: looking for jobs. For one thing, if you are looking for a job, you do not get immediate feedback. Indeed, if you're sending out resumes, for most of them you will get no feedback at all. You may not know what to do next: what kind of job to look for, where to look for it, how to apply, how wide an area to search in, whether to consider relocating. Some of the activities in job hunting are incredibly boring. On the other hand, some of the things you may need to do you are utterly unskilled at. It's no wonder that online job hunters spend so much time at video games -- video games are flow activities, and job hunting most assuredly is not.
This indicates how you can improve your performance in other activities -- plan them to promote flow.
When you're embarking on a new activity, it would be good if you could organize it so that you will always be in the flow. If you're taking a course, let us hope that it has been arranged so that you can be in the flow while learning. If you're going to have to teach yourself things, right at the beginning it will certainly look too complex: you don't know how little you can get away with knowing. But as soon as you know some of the most vital elements to include in your activity, you can try to work out a schedule that will make it possible for you to be in the flow.
In arranging a schedule, try to arrange to do simple activities that will give you a complete product or at least a complete part of a product, a complete something you can point to. Producing something will give you satisfaction. It is an indication that you are succeeding. That gives you feedback.
As you repeat the activity, combat boredom by including more aspects or making it more complex. Don't concentrate on the end result of your activity. Don't insist that other people see you as a success immediately. That will only delay feedback and promote anxiety. Instead, as you plan out the new activity, focus on the individual parts of it and ways to judge how well you're doing on those.
If you can plan out a new activity so that you can do it in the flow, it will be satisfying, promote your happiness, and develop your skills much more quickly than trying to force yourself to do it.
Dr. Christopher is offering a growing collection of online income stream courses and eBooks directed at speakers, writers, and self-employed professionals. Dr. Christopher, a Colorado public speaker and seminar leader, prepared these in response to requests from the Speakers In Colorado group.
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What Are You Waiting For?
Written by Dr. Robert Anthony
Thursday, 11 June 2009 12:46
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Are You Putting Off Your Dreams? Or have things slowed down recently? Is your life visibly changing the way you want it to? Or are you still stuck with the same problems?
I woke up today thinking about three people who contacted me this week concerning the progress they were making reaching their goals. They each said the same thing in a different way.
Although they all made good progress in the beginning, they are now all stalled. It's very frustrating for me because I got myself caught up in their dreams. I imagined how their lives would be when they've completed the changes they needed to make. I can easily see the benefits they will gain such as a much larger income, more satisfying relationships and the pride of knowing that they are doing exactly what they always wanted to do – and earning a great living from it.
It's also frustrating for another reason. Although I can see the finish line, they are standing still. The frustrating part of all this is they have all the tools necessary to succeed, but now they are stuck. So why have they stopped?
I can't say I know the answer for each of them. I'm sure there are many reasons. But I suspect there is one cause in every case. They have come to the point where they have done everything they could comfortably do and now they have arrived at a place where they've never been before. Any new step forward, represents a step out of their comfort zone.
If you want to improve the results in your life, you have to accept the fact that you can no longer do the same old things the same old way.
Making a commitment to change your life is a big step. It usually occurs when something has happened to make you realize that you are unhappy with some aspect of your life. Often this event or circumstance will jolt you into deciding that the time has finally come to change your current situation.
The charge that you get from deciding to change your situation will keep you going through the early stages of your transformation. For example, it can energize and motivate you to read a book, take a course, and even go through all the details of setting up a business. All those preparatory activities are necessary and good – but they amount to nothing unless you are able to get your dream started. And getting your dream started -- actually kicking your dream into action -- is new territory. New means strange. And strange means uncomfortable.
Having been involved with a number of very effective training programs over the years, I've been disappointed by how many bright and ambitious students fail to finish their training. And of those who finish, less ten percent turn their hard-earned skills into substantial or measurable results.
Then weeks or months later they look at the courses or programs they have taken and wonder, as I'm doing about these three people now: "What happened?"
If you feel that you were off to a good start but are currently stalled, you need to admit to yourself that you have probably slipped back into your comfort zone. More than likely you have been deceiving yourself that you are making progress, but at the same time you are really not getting anywhere.
What you need to do is take action. Even if it is a very small action. Nothing you can tell yourself, nothing you can say to others, nothing you can think or feel or imagine is going to get you out of the mental bog you're mired in. The only thing that can rescue you is – to take that next step.
Maybe you know what that is. If you know exactly what it is, DO IT! If you don't know, or aren't sure, allow you intuition to guide you. Do whatever you feel compelled to do, but do it NOW to get yourself going again -- even if it means entering your discomfort zone.
I said earlier, I am disappointed by how many people start to change their lives and then stall. Many of these people are good at the initial study phase, but lose pace when it comes time to make those next steps, transitioning from knowledge to action.
On the other hand, I'm thinking now about many people who have succeeded . . . about the hundreds of unsolicited letters I receive from people who have taken my “Secret of Deliberate Creation” program and are now living the lives they dreamed about. All they did was just FOLLOW THROUGH until they got results. They just applied simple steps outlined in the program and the changes were almost magical.
What is your dream? To become a freelance artist / writer / consultant? To own your own business? To become financially independent . . . perhaps even wealthy? Don't put off the success you've always dreamed about. My “Secret of Deliberate Creation” program will show you how to get started NOW and give yourself the jolt you need to make that final change to move you from where you are to where you want to be.
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