3 Fun Ways to Learn with GAMEs

Discover and choose your ways to make learning a fun game.

Apply with GAMEs

The life cycle is summarized as Study, Apply, Mentor. You study and learn in your youth. Then you apply what you learn until you master it. Then you mentor others, sharing what you’ve learned, completing your cycle. My previous blog, 3 Phases of the Life Cycle, provided an overview of the life cycle. The last two blogs focused on ways to enhance your assimilation of the information you receive through study in its various forms and your roles as student and mentor. This blog will focus on ways to make learning a fun game.

Your strongest memories are those with the greatest emotions attached, whether positive or negative emotions. You can consciously memorize more easily by making the experience as much fun as possible. Apply your skills and knowledge using GAMEs - Gaining Abundant Meaningful Experiences. Energizing your activities emotionally by making them fun GAMEs, you can expand time and increase your productivity, boosting your energy even more.

To discover and choose your favorite ways to make learning fun and memorable, try out the following three areas:

• Hands-On Experience

• Collaborative Challenges

• Full Sensory Experience

Even this discovery process can be a fun game. Start with what you enjoy and play with ideas to incorporate more of those things into your daily activities. Ask for support from others and have fun together. Make your senses come alive for even more memorable impact by adding physical elements to your activities.

Hands-On Experience

What activities do you love doing? Think about all the different areas of your life. What do you enjoy about your work? What do you enjoy about spending time with family, friends or business associates? What do you do for relaxation? Pinpoint the feelings and what specifically elicits those feelings. What specific needs are you fulfilling with these enjoyable activities? Be sure to include activities that are mentally, emotionally and physically enjoyable.

Do you celebrate when you reach goals at work or complete projects? You can apply the same types of rewards for reaching your goals at home. Work itself can be enjoyable, especially when you are passionate about it and balance it well with relaxation. What are the specific activities at work that you haven’t enjoyed up until now? Play with ideas to make them more enjoyable. It starts with acceptance that the activity is necessary, which helps you shift your mindset from “I should do this” to “I want to do this, because it helps to move me forward, and doing it effectively and efficiently will help me be happier and more productive.”

Even mundane, but necessary, paperwork can be more fun with colorful folders or gold stars for checklists. Things like this provide visible reminders of your accomplishments and make it easier to stay organized. Use colors that energize you.

Play silly “what if” games to help you generate creative solutions to problems and to generate more ideas. Releasing judgment and allowing yourself to be silly with your ideas can often lead you to real solutions that you might not have thought of otherwise. Go for expansive ideas. 

Nothing is too silly or impossible to consider. After all, we’ve learned how to fly by creating airplanes and helicopters, and we’ve learned how to fit a computer into our pocket or on our wrist. Don’t assume anything is impossible, instead ask if it is worth your energy to pursue it. 

Collaborative Challenges

At work or at home, enjoy your experiences more by sharing them with others. Collaborate on projects to make the best use of everyone’s talents. Give your team a challenge to meet an ambitious, yet possible goal, without a lot of overwhelm.  Schedule rewards for each benchmark accomplishment. 

Collaborative projects work well at work and at home. Have the whole family clean the house, decorate for holidays, garden, etc. and have family rewards, like a hike, a movie, dinner out, or any reward that appeals to the whole family as a fun time. For bigger projects, you could even go on a vacation to celebrate. 

Notice how you feel when you're at home, at work and in your community. Does your environment make you feel happy or sad, tired or energized? Do the people you’re with generate positive uplifting feelings or negative depressing feelings? Are they affected by the environment? 

Do your part to build a supportive community environment. Make any necessary changes to support your mental, emotional and physical health. Play with ideas to uplift morale and to energize your environment everywhere you spend significant portions of your time. Together with family, friends and associates you can make your daily life more fun and memorable.

Full Sensory Experience

Physical activity can enhance learning. Take frequent breaks to rejuvenate your mental energy. Exercise can naturally boost your focus and start a cascade of 

feel-good hormones, which also helps to reduce stress. The more you relax, the more creative and productive you’ll be. 

Stay present to what is happening in the moment, using all your senses. Release the effort of trying to “figure things out.” Your subconscious mind works much faster than your conscious mind, so allow it to provide you with intuitive insights instead.

Release any negative emotions you might be feeling at the moment. Start with a few deep breaths to calm any fight, flight or freeze response. Consciously choose a memory of a positive experience to help shift your thoughts and emotions. 

If you find yourself closing your body into a smaller protective position like you’re scared or sad, open your arms and chest, look up, and smile. Any kind of power pose will help you expand your energy, making you more ready and able to learn. Expanding your energetic vibration while doing any activity will enhance your ability to learn, perform and remember them. 

Align your activities with your vision and values. Allow your passion to guide your choices in the direction of fulfilling your vision. Stay present and make the activities as enjoyable as possible in mental, emotional and physical ways. Enjoy your wonderful life experience each moment as you study, apply and mentor, using GAMEs to enhance your progress.