Playing The Game Of Life.

How can we become happier, more productive in all the areas of our life and confront the challanges we face with determination and ease?

We just need to learn how to have fun.

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There is a famous saying that states : "life isn't all fun and games".

Serious and important looking people will tell you that there is a time to have fun and there is time for responsibilities - work,choirs and different types of actions we have to do that we don't consider as fun.

Fun is a word used to describe an enjoyable passing of time, and usually when you say you had fun doing something it immediately implies that whatever you did wasn't critical or important.

Try to remmember when was the last time you said you had fun at work. When we hear someone saying he had fun working today two emotions arise. One is a feeling dis-belief that it is even possible to have fun working and the other is a slight glimpse of jealousy of the incredible luck this man has in having fun working.

So there is fun and there are responsibilties.

But do they really have to be so different?

We have to figure out when do we have fun and how having fun affects us.

Fun is mostly associated with games. Just try to recall the last time you said you had fun doing something, a time when you had a big smile and shining eyes.

This activity, whatever it may be, had some element of a game to it, from the more obvious game or contest you participated in, to a more subtle game of a heated dialog with an interesting person.
So to have more fun we just have to treat everything like it is a game.

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Now you probably thinking: *'Some things are very important and can't be treated as a game'.

That is exactly where the problem is. When we take something too seriously we start to stress about it. This feeling of stress changes the hormonal balance in our body by secreting the stress hormones Cortisol and Adrenaline.

The hormonal change in our body impairs our problem solving abilities making the challange in hand harder. A calm and relaxed mind coupled with just a little excitement is agile, sharp and can deal with different challanges easily.

Not only that taking things too serious affects our ability deal with different issues, it also makes us way to sensitive both to failure and critique.

When we fail doing something important taking things too seriously can lead to a long perios of
depression and sometimes can makes us give up on trying again altogether.

For years I was taking myself too seriously, up to a point at which a failed math exam made me quit college. At that time I was working as a security manager of a big night club, and I was doing great.

A couple of years later, I decided to go back to school. Thinking about the changes I need to do not to quit again I compared the previous failure in college to the success at work. I realized that the reason I was successful at that job was because I had fun doing it. I really enjoyed solving problems, getting into fights and helping people have a good time, it felt like an action video game to me.

Understanding that,I decided to make going to college fun and it worked out amazing.I had a blast for 3 years and I got my degree with honors.

Now, I would like to share with you 3 simple rules that I use to fill my life with fun that will help you to become a happy and calm person that can take on any challange.

Gamify The fear

Taking obstacles we face in life way too serious leads to stress and bad performance, the fear of failure is extremly paralyzing.

To deal with that fear and the stress just turn the tasks you are facing into a game.
The best way to turn something into a game is to make the possibility of failure not as bad as it seems.

As self centered creatures, we give too much weight to the failure.
Yes, it can be bad, but really what is the worse that can happen?

There are a very few occasions in which failure can really lead to dire consequence and most people never find themselves in a life or death situations. Usually it's just a little bruise on your Ego.

Once you acknowledge that making the fear goes away and the game begins.

Enter the Flow

Flow state is an elusive magical state of being present in the moment. We all experience flow state when playing games, we feel ustoppable and time itself even slows down.

Figure out when you experience flow state - it can be playing video games, basketball or even writing. Once you figure out go and play and notice the feeling you're having during the game.

Secinds vefore the stressful event , just close tour eyes and imagine yourself playing that game. Your brain will think that the event is a part of the game.

Create a Competition

Just make everything a competition and push yourself to the max.

The element of competition will make you try harder and most likely to enjoy the task more.

I believe we can make our life truly fun by just changing out prospective on things. If you follow these tips your life will start to resemble to a beautiful and complicated game.

When that happens you truly become happy,just don't forget the rules.

Thank you for your time .

With love.

Eugene