Work has always been a trial for me; it has always been something that I did because I had to do it to survive. I never found the joy in work that other people seem to have, the best I ever got about work was to be happy that I had a job, but apathetic to the actual process of work. That is changing as of now.

Just listened to another great lesson from Darren Hardy and it has changed my outlook on work.

I have always been someone who really enjoys games of all sorts, from video games to board games and such. Darren has just taught me how to turn my work into a game and it will change my entire outlook on life. There are several steps to go about this transformation that I will be following:

1: Decide on Major Goals: Best bet is to choose three goals that I want to work on here, three things that I want to achieve and the timeframe that I want to achieve them.

2: Objective: This is the process of deciding what key behaviors in me that I need to change in order to achieve my major goals; it is the plan to get to the goal.

3: Tracking Progress: There has to be a way to track progress, be it marking off each day that I accomplish the tasks that I identified in step 2 to get to my goals or something immediate like moving marbles from one jar to another every time that I complete part of the daily task.

4: Create Rewards: There has to be incentive to actually do the hard things that make the goals happen. This step is creating something that will give me a sense of joy and accomplishment when I succeed at the objective and even bigger rewards when I achieve a goal.

5: Create Consequences: It is natural for humans to put more work into avoiding something that they don’t want them to reach for what they do. This is capitalizing on that concept. Create consequences that you will hold yourself to if you don’t complete your objective.

6: Engage Competition: Darwin tells us that only the strong and most adept survive to propagate the species. This is competition in its most distilled form, but those instincts are still in us and we can use them. I will engage others to compete with me on my objective to increase my drive. I can even compete against myself to beat my previous record to create this incentive.

Now I have a framework to turn my work into fun, but how will this actually work. Xiaoyi and I did this to help me at my insurance job. One of the big things that we are supposed to do is solicit life insurance to our customers. There isn’t immediate incentive to do this like a bonus or anything, but it does add into the profit sharing at the end of the year. I was terrible at doing this and getting those referrals and it was a constant thorn in my side and point of contention between me and those above me. So we created a

1: Goal: Become comfortable with soliciting life insurance and increase my referral rate

2: Objective:  Use embracing failure and get at least 100 people to tell me no to life insurance in

3: Tracking: A checkbox list at my desk. Every time someone tells me “No” they go on the “Death List”

4: Create Rewards: This one takes explanation. I am on a low carb diet to force me into eating healthier. It is working and I have lost 45 pounds since I started. Well, one of my favorite foods is pizza.  Needless to say, pizza is not on my diet. So my reward is that I get to indulge in my favorite pizza once in the next month if I meet my requirements for the objective.

5: Create Consequences:  If I fail, I don’t get to purchase a new video game or spend money on

6: Competition: I have gotten other people in my office to join in trying to get as many people on their “Death List” as they can each month and we’ll pass a trophy around to the person that gets the most each month as a sign of the winner.

This simple game has tripled the number of times during a day that I actually ask people if they want life insurance and has done great things to my referral rate. Now I will take this idea into the work of creating my fortune and watch as my enjoyment and fulfillment in life take off for the stars!

What games can you create to get you through those tasks that you hate? Give me some examples and tell me how they are working out for you. Turn life into the game that it should be!