Ep. 10 Gamify Your Life To Have More Fun And 'Level Up'

Are we living in a simulation? Could we be the main characters of our own video games? There are theories out there that this is the case (wouldn't that be fun?!), and when you start living your life like this is true, things can rapidly change. 🕹

In today's episode, I talk about how to 'gamify your life' and make it a lot more fun. I use examples from Animal Crossing, Disney's Dreamlight Valley, and Mario Kart to show that every facet of a video game can translate into our real lives. By treating life like a game, it transforms your relationship with money, builds skills, and gives clarity on your mission in life.

Some examples:
+ Create your avatar
+ Win more coins
+ Play through your mission
+ Win sidequests
+ Beat the big boss

Once you change your perspective on life to view it as a video game, everything becomes a little easier and a lot more fun.

You have the control(er)! 🎮

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Thank you so much for listening, it truly means the world to me. I would love to connect with you!

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Grateful for you. You are MAGIC! ✨

With love,
Andrea

Transcript

Andrea: 0:01

Hello and welcome to Dream Life Connection, your hub for magical personal development. I'm Andrea Morrison. This podcast is a blend of whimsical and grounding topics that will inspire you to live the life of your dreams. In each episode, we'll take a mini journey through a dreamy topic, learn some modern magic tricks, and I'll share my stories as a wandering nomad, dream guide and virtual alchemist. Thank you so much for being here. I would love to connect with you at dreamlifeconnectioncom and Dream Life Connection on Instagram. You are meant to be here. Well, hi, welcome. Welcome to Dream Life Connection.

Andrea: 0:44

I'm so glad you're here and welcome to a new episode, and I'm calling this episode Game of Fire your Life, and I'm so excited to talk about this because it's something that I have been doing in my life for quite some time, but recently it became a little bit more amplified, and that's because I had an experience in the past couple weeks that really made me see that I just work harder, I feel happier, I do better when I literally look at my life as if it's a game or a video game. So I thought I need to do an episode on this and I actually wondered should I do this episode, because my last episode was all about looking at your life as if it's an algorithm. So it's kind of in the same vein, but I think this is a lot more fun. I'm not going to lie, this is really fun and I think it's something that you'll use and it'll shift your perspective and it'll just make you look at life in kind of a more fun way. So I want to share the experience that made me really see that life is more fun when you look at it as if it's a game. So about a week and a half ago I went to this event and it was hosted by this guy who's actually going to be on the German Shark Tank so I guess in Germany the show is called the Lion's Den. So he already filmed the episode way back in February. I think. The new episode is going to be airing in October, I think and so we don't know if he's getting a deal or not. But he told us it doesn't even really matter if you get a deal on Shark Tank or not, because the exposure itself skyrockets your business.

Andrea: 2:33

So he's been working hard to grow this idea so that when it does finally air, it's going to be all ready for thousands of people trying this game. So what his invention is, or what his idea is, is this citywide scavenger hunt, and it's a website or an app that he created, where you go around and there is a set number of challenges and you have a time limit and it's a huge scavenger hunt in whatever city you're in, and the whole point of this is to be able to play this game in any city that you're in. He has some that are specific to certain cities, so he created one specific to Bansko, but he wants this game to be played in any city, and he was even saying this is a really good activity for companies to do with their team members, or it could even be like a fun first date. And so we showed up and we were separated into teams and we set off on our challenges and we had a couple hours for this challenge and there were about 40 different little activities that you had to complete in order to win. So we got separated into teams and I am not kidding when he said ready, set, go.

Andrea: 3:51

I wanted to run, I wanted to fulfill every single challenge. I was super into it and my team, you know, we did a really, really good job. We didn't win, but we did a great job. Going around. We had to do all these challenges where you know you're approaching people, you're asking for things, you do funny little challenges. You have to find certain landmarks or certain items you had. I had to try like a specific drink that's popular in Bulgaria which was not very good, and so you have to do all these like little challenges, and some of them are about like history of Bansko. Some of them are connecting with people. We had to do a traditional Bulgarian dance and it was so much fun, so much fun.

Andrea: 4:40

And I'm running around and I'm doing all these challenges and I noticed something as time was going by, I noticed that I was taking it extremely seriously, like I was in it to win it, and if it were up to me, I would have been sprinting the entire time. I was trying to like delegate. I was trying to like round my team up to say, all right, who's gonna do this, what's our strategy, what are we gonna do next? And I'm like looking at all the different challenges, figuring out where can we do each challenge in the city. And it was kind of funny because I had a couple teammates that were like you're already thinking too much, you're already like carrying too much about this game and I was like I wanna win so I'm not gonna lie. I kind of had to like call myself down a little bit. I was like if I keep taking this too seriously, my teammates are gonna kick me off. But I just was having so much fun and it showed me that I am extremely competitive and I wanted to win. But it was so much fun and it helped me connect with the city more and it was also really cool to hear about the experience of being on this TV show and everything that goes into that. But I think the greatest learning for me was that when I'm presented challenges in the form of a game, you bet I'm gonna wanna complete those challenges.

Andrea: 6:06

I've always been curious about the theory of life being a simulation. You can go down some pretty deep rabbit holes about life being a simulation. You can find videos on YouTube. It's actually really, really fascinating and especially when you get into dream work, I mean that definitely opens the door of that being a possibility, and so I've always kind of had that in my mind. But doing this challenge and then sitting down and really thinking about it because here's where I connected it.

Andrea: 6:33

So one of the challenges was to do a funny walk for like 200 meters or something like that. So we're out in public, we're on a busy street and I'm like, yeah, okay, okay, I'm ready to do a funny walk. And so I'm basically running down this street 200 meters with a really ridiculous walk, with all these people walking around, and I didn't care at all. I was like, yeah, I have to do this because I wanna win, and I'm like, why can I do this so easily for a game like this? But then, when it comes to me doing something for myself, for my business, for my life, for my health, it's like so difficult. So I started, I actually sat down and I thought about this I'm like I need to gamify my life like in a real way, so that I almost look at challenges being like a game, a way to level up.

Andrea: 7:30

And I also remember a time so I was working at a TV station and my boss he gave me this, not a challenge or mission, but it was a project and he was like I want you to go around and take a photo of everyone that works at the TV station. And I was like on it, I'm on it, and I took my camera and I I mean I was approaching every single person with no fear and I was like this is what I'm supposed to do, this is my mission. I wanna take a photo of you. I'm going up to the main news anchors and I'm saying I need to take a photo of you. It was so easy for me because he gave me that mission, but if I just sat there thinking in my own mind, oh, I wanna like take photos of everybody that I work with and create a slideshow for our end of year presentation, I would have been afraid to do that. It's almost like I need some type of mission or game in order to complete it. This is something that can really benefit us by framing everything as if it's a part of a game.

Andrea: 8:30

So let's take a look at some of the video games that we play, that we all know and love. I am addicted to Animal Crossing and right now I am really hooked on Disney's Dreamlight Valley. Those are my two big games right now, and there's some components actually not even some components like every component of a video game can translate into our reality, and it's so much fun to go through our life viewing it as if we're in Animal Crossing or Dreamlight Valley or whatever game it is that you're playing. So when we start a game, what do we do? We always start with an avatar. We always start with our character and who we are, and we customize it. We give ourselves a certain appearance. We basically give our character an identity, and we all have certain tools, certain skills that we're really good at, and they're all skills that maybe they're not really strong in the beginning, but then we can grow them. So maybe you're thinking about your Mario Kart Kart and think about the different benefits that certain cars have. You know, maybe it's really fast, but it doesn't have the best steering. It's same with ice.

Andrea: 9:45

We're born with a certain skill set and there's lots of ways to figure out what our natural skills are. We can create our own little chart. It actually be kind of fun to do a little creative activity in your notebook or your journal and just sketch yourself and literally create a little chart. What do you go out? What do you want to improve on? And there's also some other charts that you can use that are already created for you. Think about astrology, your birth chart. There's also a neagram. Take the quiz and figure out what your natural personality traits are like. It's similar to Myers-Briggs. There's also human design. You can fill out your information and get a chart, and I even did this the other day and I know that I'm a manifestor and it was telling me all sorts of things, based on my chart, and where I was born, when I was born, and it tells me what my natural abilities are and I can use that to benefit me. So, just like in any video game, you can improve any of these skills. Right now, I'm playing Dreamlight Valley and I go out and I go mining. Each time I mine, I grow my skill and I level up, and you can do this in real life too. Do you want to improve a language? Take some classes. Do you want to learn how to cook? Every time you go to the stove or the oven, you're improving your skill set and you're leveling up, and it's so fun to think about life that way.

Andrea: 11:18

Now, what comes with every video game that you play is some type of mission. There's some type of quest you need to go on and there's one big bad boss you need to beat at the very end. Or there are games where it's nonlinear, it's just endless and you just keep going. And I sat and I thought about it for a while and I was thinking, hmm, do we all have a mission? Like, why are some games, why do some games have a mission and some games not have a mission? Is that similar to us in our real life? Because I'm thinking here do I have a big mission? Is there something that I need to be like running towards? Is there some big boss I need to meet up with and that's the end of the game? Or do we get to kind of choose? That's that's how I'm viewing it. I am viewing this as your mission is up to you. If you want your life to be like Animal Crossing, where you just build your environment, you get the villagers you want, you improve your house, you improve your island and you just go through your day to day, that's great, that's great and that's up to you. Same with the story concept For me personally.

Andrea: 12:32

I am really loving the story of Dreamlight Valley, and especially because it's literally taking place in the characters' dreams. So in Dreamlight Valley, the character goes to this island and it's inhabited by all the you know, the main Disney characters, but they it used to be this like lush land and they all, like, got along and it was really happy. And then all of a sudden, there was dark magic and they call it the forgetting. So they've all forgotten who they are, they've all forgotten their memories, and so the mission of this game is to bring back the memories, bring back the characters, unlock these certain biomes. I mean it's so much fun for me to think of my life as if it's like Dreamlight Valley, because I'm going and I'm improving these skills and I'm going to I mean my life. I'm going to different countries, I'm living in different countries and I'm literally thinking of it like different biomes in this game and I'm unlocking and I'm hopefully helping people remember their dreams and I mean that's kind of my mission. And I thought that this was really perfect too.

Andrea: 13:35

So my business name is Dream Life Connection, and when I first created that name I was like okay, dream Life Connection, dlc. You know what's crazy is? Dlc is actually like a video game term. It's it stands for downloadable content, and so it means that anytime you have a game, you can download extra content to add to this game. I think I'm saying that right. But basically I'm like oh well, that's very fitting, because DLC, dream Life Connection that's. I like to think that that's what I'm doing for people, too is I'm like providing things that they can add to their already present game.

Andrea: 14:13

So I don't know, it's kind of a funny little coincidence, but with every game you know there's a mission, whether it's an endless nonlinear game or it's a story game, or it's like Zelda and you need to save the princess. Whatever it is, it's up to you to decide what your mission is, what you want the outcome to be. How do you want to play your game? And in your life you're going to be presented side quests, just like in video games. There's always going to be sets of challenges that you need to overcome. There's going to be people that come into your life that teach you a lesson that you need to help or they need to help you, and then, at the end of that side quest, you basically unlocked an achievement and you leveled up. So how can this help you day to day? What can you do right now with this new perspective, looking at your life as a video game? Obviously, the avatar, the mission, the side quests those are, those are important, but something that has really helped me is looking at money as if it's a game, we have such attachment to money and we give money so much control.

Andrea: 15:28

And I my mindset around money years ago was horrible. I used to think money was evil. I used to think that if I spent money it was gone forever. I didn't invest in anything or myself. I did spend a lot of money, not so wisely, I will be completely honest about that. It took me a while, but I have completely changed my mindset around money and when you play a video game any video game that has money you know that in order to make more money, you need to spend money and in order to unlock certain things, you need to spend money. And it's the same in our life.

Andrea: 16:08

For example, maybe two years ago, I was offered this fitness program for $50 for two weeks and for me that was like I cannot pay that. That is it crazy price for two weeks of recipes and workouts and personalized coaching. So I didn't do it and I look back at that now and it's like $50 was not that much to invest in that. That's actually really cheap for two weeks of coaching and recipes and workouts. And I have learned the value of investing in yourself. So I've invested in business mentors. I've invested in courses, in programs that have helped me build my own business, and something I did recently that I literally viewed as a game was I boosted one of my Instagram posts and I was like let's just play with it and see what happens. And guess what? It was amazing. I said the quote pay to play, let's just pay a little bit of money. Yeah, it's annoying, it's Instagram, they're already gazillionaires. But I was like let's just see what the return on investment is. After paying $36, I got about 60 new magical people in my community on Instagram and I got about 25 more people on my Magic Monday newsletter. That's huge for me at least. I know there are people out there with way bigger followings, but for me it was like that was a big jump and that was worth paying $30 plus to get more magical people in my life. That's all I'm trying to do is like spread this magic, and so the fact that more people like me have found me because I paid some money to do that like maybe that's buying followers, but to me like it was worth it and it's all because I viewed it like a game.

Andrea: 18:04

Something else you can do is think of the rewards that you get. That's really important to attribute rewards to your achievements. Much like when I was running around during this big scavenger hunt, I actually asked myself like why was I so ambitious to get to win, to do all these things? Was it just to win? And for me, it was partly about winning, but it was also partly because of the prize. There was a prize for the winners and it was a game that this guy had created and he was going to mail it to the winners and I was like I want that game, I want that game, and so I really wanted to win so we can reward ourselves. That's a fun way to motivate yourself to complete things or to try things.

Andrea: 18:52

Maybe you have a challenge in your life that you need to do. So. Let's think about an example. Like you want to record your first podcast episode. Let's just since we're listening to a podcast right now, let's just think of it like that. So you want to record a podcast, but you're running into all these blocks, all these challenges oh, I don't have the equipment or I'm afraid, or I'm nervous, or I don't know what to say. Map it out. There are definitely strategies to do this, but give yourself a reward once you do this, tell yourself once I record my first podcast episode, I will treat myself to a nice dinner at that new restaurant that just opened up in my city. Give yourself a reward and then, when you know that that's on the other side, that's going to motivate you to actually take these steps to record this first episode. So that's what I've been doing.

Andrea: 19:45

I've been thinking about rewards that will motivate me to actually overcome these challenges that have been put in front of me, and I view them as side quests. All right, I got to go through this, I got to experience this and this will help me level up, and then I get a reward and then it's literally like an upward cycle. You just go up, up, up, up and you grow and you grow. It helps so much and not you don't even have to think about these physical rewards. For example, in Dreamlight Valley there are. You receive Dreamlight every time you achieve like a daily act of some sort. So whenever you feed a turtle, or whenever you have a conversation with a friend, or anytime you mine a certain gem or sell something, you get dreamlight and then that unlocks certain areas in your game. That's like in real life. You can receive good karma anytime you are kind to people, anytime you do some type of daily quest. It's just so fun to think about. I hope this all makes sense.

Andrea: 20:47

I am dying to know if this resonates with you at all, if there's a certain game that you like that maybe you'll kind of equate your life to tell me about it. Please reach out to me. You can always message me on DreamLife Connection on Instagram. Seriously, and I'm not just saying that, I want to know and I'm also really curious about certain video games that people are playing. And why, like? Why do you like certain video games? I mean Dreamlight Valley.

Andrea: 21:17

I used to have dreams about Disney all the time, and so it just seemed like a game. Every time I play it, I'm like I feel like this game was like made for me and it's just really fun. Like I walk through my life now and everything that I'm doing. I'm kind of looking at it like who is this character? What are they trying to teach me? Why did this challenge get presented to me?

Andrea: 21:38

Oh, I leveled up, woohoo. Like it's so fun and it's fun to think about, like your birthdays, well, like that's another giant level. You know, it's just fun and I think we need to remember that Sometimes I think we take life a little too seriously. And what if life is a simulation? What if that is our mission? To just have fun with it, to just keep going and keep growing and keep evolving? And I don't know, maybe this helps, maybe it doesn't. Either way, it's really fun to think about, but I really appreciate you.

Andrea: 22:13

I'm going to view this episode as another level up. I'm going to give myself some points, some XP points, and thank you so much for being here. I always say this, but I'm so grateful. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and have so much fun this week. Tell me what you think, tell me what game you're playing, tell me what your avatar is like. I love it. I'm so into it. So, anyway, have a magical week and thank you again. See you next time. Thank you so so much for being here. It truly means the world to me.

Andrea: 22:48

If you'd like to receive even more magic, be sure to subscribe to my Magic Monday newsletter at dreamlifeconnectioncom. While you're there, take a look around and see if any of my offerings speak to you. I offer one-to-one guidance, business alchemy, dream therapy and tarot card readings. So if you're looking for even more magic. You're in the right place. Oh, and be sure to look for the little white rabbit somewhere on my website to receive a fun surprise. I would love to connect with you. You can always find me at dreamlifeconnection on Instagram and never forget you are magic.