Learn to cook, by playing?

Gamify, to shape your life.

Oh the inner child! You know, that feeling that comes out when let's say a game of monopoly comes out or when you see a hop scotch board on the side walk. Finding ways for your brain to interpret new behaviors as "fun" is a great way to make long standing behaviors. I often use gamification in my sessions to keep clients attention but sometimes on a more personal side, I use gamification for my own goals, especially when it comes to nutrition.

Those who've read my blog know that I'm a huge proponant of cooking but this behavior was not something I found easy to adapt. My way of learning to cook was a year over year process of walking into the grocery store and picking 1 new vegetable or fruit each time to experiment on. This experimentation and curiosity slowly over time helped me to not only develop cooking skills but improve upon the quality of my grocery cart items over time.

Nowadays, I'll often do this with recipes instead now that I've explored the great beyond of the vegetable wall at my local grocer. Seeking more and more complex recipes as a way to give myself a small challenge but with a wonderful reward if I succeed! You can do this too, one small vegetable at a time; go out there and chef it up!

How have you used gamification to help make better long-term behaviors?