SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully

Whatever it is that gets your nerves going, keep imagining it, and wait until you feel the telltale butterflies in your stomach. As soon as you feel your nerves, say I’m excited or Get excited to yourself. Out loud. Say it a few times. I’m excited. Get excited!

here’s what I discovered: you can experience the benefits of post-traumatic growth without the trauma, if you are willing to undertake an extreme challenge in your life—such as running a marathon, writing a book, starting a business, becoming a parent, quitting smoking, or making a spiritual journey. Researchers call this post-ecstatic growth.

These seven rules to live by make up the SuperBetter method, and they are the heart of this book: 1. Challenge yourself. 2. Collect and activate power-ups. 3. Find and battle the bad guys. 4. Seek out and complete quests. 5. Recruit your allies. 6. Adopt a secret identity. 7. Go for an epic win.

Not everyone has regrets on their deathbed—but if they do, they are likely to be one or more of the following: 1. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. 2. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. 3. I wish I had let myself be happier. 4. I wish I’d had the courage to express my true self. 5. I wish I’d lived a life true to my dreams, instead of what

Instead of waiting for life to throw a terrible trauma at you, you can cultivate post-ecstatic growth at any time by intentionally undertaking a meaningful project or mission that creates significant stress and challenge for you.

Instead of waiting for life to throw a terrible trauma at you, you can cultivate post-ecstatic growth at any time by intentionally undertaking a meaningful project or mission that creates significant stress and challenge for you. This stressful adventure you’ve chosen for yourself creates the necessary conditions for you to struggle and grow as muc

It turns out that there are seven ways of thinking and acting that contribute to post-traumatic and post-ecstatic growth. And they are all ways that we commonly think and act when we play games. 1. Adopt a challenge mindset. You need to be willing to engage with obstacles and look at stressful life events as a challenge, not a threat. In games, we

Tackle an important problem in your life, even if it seems overwhelming right now or out of your control. In fact, tackle it especially if it overwhelms you or feels out of your control.

even when I still had the symptoms, even while I was still in pain, I stopped suffering.