Recently I was invited to join my fiancée and her sister on a geocaching expedition. If you’re unfamiliar, geocaching is basically outdoor exploration to random and sometimes obscure GPS locations, either in urban or rural environments, where the aim is to find hidden little stashes that typically contain a small log book and sometimes something more!
Of course the dogs came along for company, and as we talked and laughed (and got lost in a random farmer’s field), I was thinking about what geocaching was to us in that moment. The thrill of the hunt, the sense of achievement when we finally find the canister or bag or fun little toy horse, all combined with the fabulous company and comedically muddy dogs. This was a day out in the country, but more. An already fabulous hike through rural England past farms and mansions and woodland was made better by that sense of additional achievement.
This concept, of enhancing common activities into something that can energise and excite, has been around since the dawn of human boredom [No, I won’t cite my sources here, don’t be facestious]. For someone like myself who grew up with the advent of video games, self-set targets and the gratification that comes from achieving ever more difficult or elaborate tasks is basically a core part of my upbringing and now a pivotal part of my career. The target thing, not the video games.
Reach a million sims in SimCity, fill the map in Theme Park, save everyone in Lemmings, complete a Quake run without dying. These days my video gaming targets are far more rare and positively mundane in comparison to some of the wild targets I set myself in the early 2000s, but the targets I set myself in my daily life have once again become an ever more challenging feat to accomplish.
The purpose of gamification is to provide a sense of accomplishment for doing something you would have otherwise done anyway with end result being increased engagement as you hunt for that next achievement. Apps like DuoLingo gamify your learning experience, which you were going to do anyway because that’s why you’re on the app, but by gamifying it, they’re giving you an additional sense of gratification beyond simply logging in and learning some new words in Japanese that day.
Similarly, your employer’s training and personal development programmes may also have gamification in the form of ‘badges’ or ‘certificates’ that while actually being meaningless to your career outside that company, have engaged you in an additional way beyond simply making sure you know how to fill out an HR form.
When we stop and pay attention, we’ll see that a lot of our lives has been gamified to increase our engagement with products and services. Some gamification works – like those daily login bonuses on Raid: Shadow Legends (/spit), while others will pass you by without a second thought, like those pointless point systems on websites like Stack Overflow. Digital gamification is everywhere, which generally means the purpose is kind of defeated. Analogue gamification, or the gamification of life, that’s exceedingly hard to achieve without the individual – without YOU – putting in that effort, and it’s the effort that makes it so much more rewarding than shards or points or gems.
This is the inherent, understated genius behind geocaching. The whole system is at the whims of the general public, but those who actually care enough to find those secret little stashes are the people who care enough to make sure they’re put back safely. They will ensure their contents aren’t lost or damaged because, for that individual, the act of finding the cache and the sense of gratification and achievement is far beyond any digital token in a digital application that means nothing anywhere else in life.
On reflection, this is a major part of why I spent a lot of my youth staring at a screen – not for the built-in awards, because they didn’t exist in the 90s, but for the sense of achieving something in my own digital world when I didn’t want to go outside and get wet or bullied (I grew up in Sheffield. It rained a lot and I was a mouthy runt.)
So as an adult, how do I gamify my life?
Through the simple act of setting myself daily, weekly and monthly targets that result in a sense of satisfaction simply in acheiving them. Getting that promotion was a major milestone, but earning that promotion was even more validating. Starting a new job in a new place with new people & feeling I’ve earned the right to be there. Learning new technologies, methodologies and techniques is great, but seeing them in action – putting them into action – and seeing their positive results is far more gratifying. Now, as a manager of amazing technical staff, I get that sense of achievement when my team achieve something, when I get to congratulate them on their wins, when I get to pass on amazing feedback or when I get to brag about the product that they delivered to my friends or in front of a room full of strangers. I don’t take pleasure in stealing their accomplishments, I take pleasure in getting the opportunity to tell people about their accomplishments. In feeling proud of my team and feeling proud of their well-deserved wins.
Outside of work, it’s a similar story. Finishing a book is insanely gratifying, and so is hitting ‘publish’ on posts like this. Getting up in front of a room full of people and hearing that what I have to share is valuable to others gives me an immense sense of accomplishment. Recently we had a new back door installed and honestly the accomplishment those fantastic installers achieved still has me excited every time I open that door!
At it’s very core, I’m celebrating the wins. That’s the truth of it. I’m celebrating the wins. By focusing on the wins – whether it’s changing the bed sheets or cleaning the wet-room or adding an extra kilometer to the dogs walk, I’m able to savour those moments for longer, I’m able to reinforce why I set those self-defined targets and justify pushing them a little further, just like I did with SimCity back in the 90s. These wins help bolster my mental health and push back against my depression as well, it’s literally a win every which way!
So I encourage you to really consider what targets you have in your life, and whether you’re beating yourself up for not achieving the impossible. Winning the lottery isn’t a target, it’s a pipe dream. Mastering a technology is a win, making a product is a win, learning something new today is a win, and being present today is a win. Getting out of bed this morning is a win. The point isn’t to have massive targets to achieve, but to have a target that you can achieve, and then achieve it and celebrate that win.
Give it a try. What have you got to lose?
Danielle Summers 
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