up:: [[We can gamify our lives to enter flow more consistently by developing an autotelic personality]] Tags:: #🌱 # We can gamify our lives to enter flow more consistently by developing an autotelic personality As discussed earlier, games fulfill the seventh and last element of flow in ACTIONS, S for Self-goal, coming at activities with more intrinsic motivation by fostering an autotelic personality. Games facilitate an [[Autotelic personality]] because most of the time, people play them as an end in themselves. You can use four science-based methods to build an autotelic personality outside of games: 1. Adopt a gameful mindset 2. Adopt a playful mindset 3. Learn to love activities as ends in themselves 4. Stop overly attending to the self First and most cliche, adopt the [[Gameful mindset]] mentioned earlier. Don't shudder from failure. Rather see it as an opportunity for improvement and self-growth. Secondly, adopt a [[Playful mindset]]. A playful mindset involves pursuing your goals without a need for rigid rules and alongside a wanting for spontaneity. In modern society, we tend to think of play as something confined only to childhood. Well, I say that's crem. Play is something we should be doing at all ages. In a playful mindset, you tend to see things as an end in themselves as you don't play for some extrinsic reward. You play for the sake of play in itself. _Thirdly, don't take yourself too seriously._ I mean, who can take themselves seriously when you realize you're a semblance of organic matter floating on a rock in the middle of outer space? It's important to mention that not every activity you do in life can be predominantly for intrinsic reasons. You will come to most activities with a blend of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Just like killing the cows in the Witcher 3. In a sick, sick way, some activities must be done. But that doesn't mean the activity can't become autotelic over time. [[The more skillful you become at an activity, the more passionate you become about it over time]]. People often mistake passions as innate when in reality, they often build over time. Many of the games you play became more enjoyable as you got better and better at them. So don't push off an activity immediately because you don't show innate "passion." If it still aligns with your goals and rules for life, give it a chance to develop. Thirdly, learn to enjoy activities as ends in themselves. So many of the activities we do are driven by extrinsic rewards and motivation. We can ruin activities we love intrinsically because of [[The over justification effect]]. You need to learn to love activities as an end in themselves, like with playing games, hanging out with friends, exercising, writing, and more. I never give myself rewards for finishing a 90-minute block of writing. Partly because I'm a terrible masochist (not really) and partly because I want the reward to be the act of writing in itself. If I gave myself rewards my lizard brain would tell me to just skip out on the act of writing and take the reward at no charge instead. Fourth and finally, stop overly attending to the self. When you are overly attentive to your looks, your negative feelings, and thoughts, you leave little room in consciousness for the activity itself. To enter flow you need to lose consciousness of the self. I’m not saying you should never attend to the self again. You should just attend less to it than you are now. And of course, we can’t forget the secret eighth element to entering flow, your unique KSAOs. Related: