Mcgonigal Quotes & Sayings

When we play games, our brains respond differently to stress and obstacles. We're better able to control our attention and ignore distractions. — Jane McGonigal

We think about our future selves like different people. We often idealize them, expecting our future selves to do what our present selves cannot manage. — Kelly McGonigal

The idea of the 'lone gamer' is really not true anymore. Up to 65 percent of gaming now is social, played either online or in the same room with people we know in real life. — Jane McGonigal

Clinically speaking, depression is a pessimistic sense of your own capabilities, and despondent lack of energy. — Jane McGonigal

Every game we play activates our brain, and it's the same brain we have in real life as we have in the game. — Jane McGonigal

In entertainment, we have a comfort level with crisis. — Jane McGonigal

We have to accept as a society that games are not escapist. They really do change us. — Jane McGonigal

He loves productivity seminars because they make him feel so productive - never mind that nothing has been produced yet.) — Kelly McGonigal

According to the American Psychological Association, the most effective stress-relief strategies are exercising or playing sports, praying or attending a religious service, reading, listening to music, spending time with friends or family, getting a massage, going outside of ra walk, meditating or doing yoga, and spending time with a creative hobby. (The least effective strategies are gambling, shopping, smoking, drinking, eating, playing video games, surfing the Internet, and watching TV or movies for more than two hours. — Kelly McGonigal

My mom is a public school teacher and works with third grade students. — Jane McGonigal

Although I'm perceived as very optimistic and upbeat, it comes out of being the opposite of that - feeling isolated or lonely, looking for meaning and the kinds of things that ease that suffering in life, and finding them in large-scale social interaction, like theater and games. — Jane McGonigal

'Superbetter' looks more like a social media platform or a social network than a typical video game. You know, there aren't any 3-d spaces to explore. You don't have this avatar that you're building up. It's more about thinking like a gamer. — Jane McGonigal

I ran through most of college and ran through most of grad school. When I was writing my dissertation for my Ph.D., it was literally the only hour of the day that I wasn't working. It was nine months of torture, but I made sure I got out to run. — Jane McGonigal

I don't want a gamer to feel like they have to commit their whole life to changing the world. — Jane McGonigal

When my life is stressful, my favorite game is called 'Pop It,' where you pop balloons and prizes fall out. It's a five-minute game that focuses my mind and gives me extra attention when I'm stressed. — Jane McGonigal

Game developers know that people have more fun when they're in large groups. They feel more fired up when the challenges are more epic. — Jane McGonigal

When you choose to connect with others under stress, you can create resilience, — Kelly McGonigal

If you are a gamer, it's time to get over any regret you might feel about spending so much time playing games. You have not been wasting your time. You have been building up a wealth of virtual experience that, as the first half of this book will show you, can teach you about your true self: what your core strengths are, what really motivates you, and what make you happiest. — Jane McGonigal

Gamers always believe that an epic win is possible and that it's always worth trying, and trying now. Gamers don't sit around. — Jane McGonigal

If you make it a game, gamers will play it no matter what your motivation is in making it. — Jane McGonigal

A traumatic event doesn't doom us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can use it as a springboard to unleash our best qualities and lead happier lives. — Jane McGonigal

Games that make you feel good about yourself are good games to be playing. — Jane McGonigal

Evidence shows that having even weak social connections in a stressful situation is really good for your health and your ability to handle that situation. — Jane McGonigal

I remember the first year at the Game Developers Conference I wore these big red giant knee-high boots. Nobody cared. You can wear anything you love, because that's what you do in games. You make yourself who you want to be. — Jane McGonigal

The Gamifaction Movement is trying to help companies engage their audience and community by using game mechanics and wrapping them around shopping or achievements, so you get achievements for coming to a store or purchasing things, like rewarding activities. — Jane McGonigal

Nesse's research focuses on the evolutionary origins of depression. Why does depression exist at all? If it's stayed in our gene pool for so long, he argues, there must be some evolutionary benefit. Nesse believes that depression may be an adaptive mechanism meant to prevent us from falling victim to blind optimism - and squandering resources on the wrong goals.11 It's to our evolutionary advantage not to waste time and energy on goals we can't realistically achieve. And so when we have no clear way to make productive progress, our neurological systems default to a state of low energy ... — Jane McGonigal

Neuroscientists have discovered that when you ask the brain to meditate, it gets better not just at meditating, but at a wide range of self-control skills, including attention, focus, stress management, impulse control, and self-awareness. — Kelly McGonigal

My favorite part of running is the thinking time. — Jane McGonigal

Stress Helps You Learn and Grow — Kelly McGonigal

many gamers have already figured out how to use the immersive power of play to distract themselves from their hunger: a hunger for more satisfying work, for a stronger sense of community, and for a more engaging and meaningful life. — Jane McGonigal

Chasing meaning is better for your health than trying to avoid discomfort. — Kelly McGonigal

The more we consume, acquire, and elevate our status, the harder it is to stay happy. — Jane McGonigal

Research shows that when we're under stress or facing a major obstacle, we tend to focus on our weaknesses and what we're afraid of. — Jane McGonigal

Positive health means becoming whole-heartedly engaged with our own health care. It means not outsourcing our health to the health care system. It means getting rid of the fear and paralysis we too often feel, and instead cultivating a sense of agency. — Jane McGonigal

Any time I consider a new project, I ask myself, is this pushing the state of gaming toward Nobel Prizes? If it's not, then it's not doing anything important enough to spend my time. — Jane McGonigal

We are moving towards a new form of collective intelligence. — Jane McGonigal

Though our survival system doesn't always work to our advantage, it is a mistake to think we should conquer the primitive self completely. — Kelly McGonigal

The development of willpower -I will, I won't and I want- may define what it means to be human. — Kelly McGonigal

Whenever I do talks around the country, I map out my run. Gives me something fun to do and to look forward to doing. — Jane McGonigal

A game is an opportunity to focus our energy, with relentless optimism, at something we're good at (or getting better at) and enjoy. In other words, gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression. — Jane McGonigal

'SuperBetter' is fundamentally about a mind shift. It's about claiming your power to be in charge of how you spend your time and energy, and focusing it on the things that matter the most to you. Focusing on things that will bring real happiness, real well-being. — Jane McGonigal

I didn't accomplish what I set out to do, but I realized I had set out to do the wrong things — Jane McGonigal

For most of us, the classic test of willpower is resisting temptation, whether the temptress is a doughnut, a cigarette, a clearance sale, or a one-night stand. When people say, "I have no willpower," what they usually mean is, "I have trouble saying no when my mouth, stomach, heart, or (fill in your anatomical part) wants to say yes. — Kelly McGonigal

Things like depression and obesity are global challenges. — Jane McGonigal

For most people, an hour a day playing our favorite games will power up our ability to engage whole-heartedly with difficult challenges, strengthen our relationships with the people we care about most - while still letting us notice when it's time to stop playing in virtual worlds and bring our gamer strengths back to real life. — Jane McGonigal

Over the next generation or two, ever larger numbers of people, hundreds of millions, will become immersed in virtual worlds and online games. While we are playing, things we used to do on the outside, in "reality," won't be happening anymore, or won't be happening in the same way. You can't pull millions of person-hours out of a society without creating an atmospheric-level event. — Jane McGonigal

When we're in game worlds, I believe that many of us become the best version of ourselves: the most likely to help at a moment's notice. The most likely to stick with a problem as long as it takes. To get up after failure and try again. — Jane McGonigal

I'm always thinking about whatever game I'm working on. My brain works subconsciously on design pretty much every hour I'm awake. — Jane McGonigal

People come up with resolutions that don't reflect what matters most to them, and that makes them almost guaranteed to fail. — Kelly McGonigal

We mistakenly think that by putting ourselves first, we'll finally get what we want. In fact, true happiness comes not from thinking more of ourselves, but rather from thinking less of ourselves - from seeing the truly small role we play in something much bigger, much more important than our individual needs. — Jane McGonigal

When your mind is preoccupied, your impulses - not your long-term goals - will guide your choices. — Kelly McGonigal

There is so much more knowledge than most people realize about how to maximize the benefits of play and minimize the potential harms. — Jane McGonigal

I've been running since high school. My boyfriend was on the track team, and I'd run with him. — Jane McGonigal

Go after what it is that creates meaning in your life and then trust yourself to handle the stress that follows. — Kelly McGonigal

Mindset 1: Stress Is Harmful. Experiencing stress depletes my health and vitality. Experiencing stress debilitates my performance and productivity. Experiencing stress inhibits my learning and growth. The effects of stress are negative and should be avoided. Mindset 2: Stress Is Enhancing. Experiencing stress enhances my performance and productivity. Experiencing stress improves my health and vitality. Experiencing stress facilitates my learning and growth. The effects of stress are positive and should be utilized. — Kelly McGonigal

Urgent optimism is the desire to act immediately to tackle an obstacle, combined with the belief that we have a reasonable hope of success. — Jane McGonigal

Case in point: Warnings on cigarette packages can increase a smoker's urge to light up. A 2009 study found that death warnings trigger stress and fear in smokers - exactly what public health officials hope for. Unfortunately, this anxiety then triggers smokers' default stress-relief strategy: smoking. Oops. It isn't logical, but it makes sense based on what we know about how stress influences the brain. Stress triggers cravings and makes dopamine neurons even more excited by any temptation in sight. It doesn't help that the smoker is - of course - staring at a pack of cigarettes as he reads the warning. So even as a smoker's brain encodes the words "WARNING: Cigarettes cause cancer" and grapples with awareness of his own mortality, another part of his brain starts screaming, "Don't worry, smoking a cigarette will make you feel better! — Kelly McGonigal

The intelligent want self-control; children want candy. - RUMI — Kelly McGonigal

[ ... ]while we all have the capacity to do harder things, we also have the desire to do exactly the opposite. — Kelly McGonigal

What if we started to live our real lives like gamers, lead our real businesses and communities like game designers, and think about solving real-world problems like computer and video game theorists? — Jane McGonigal

A dramatic decrease in oil availability is not at all far-fetched. — Jane McGonigal

Research shows that people who think they have the most willpower are actually the most likely to lose control when tempted.1 For example, smokers who are the most optimistic about their ability to resist temptation are the most likely to relapse four months later, and overoptimistic dieters are the least likely to lose weight. Why? They fail to predict when, where, and why they will give in. They expose themselves to more temptation, — Kelly McGonigal

My favorite definition of the mindful path is the one the reveals itself as you walk down it. You cannot find the path until you step on to it. — Kelly McGonigal

When you strip away the genre differences and the technological complexities, all games share four defining traits: a goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation.' page 21 — Jane McGonigal

You need to develop mental habits that allow you to activate the same brain patterns we activate during gameplay. — Jane McGonigal

You can't play the same game every day for years. New games are key. — Jane McGonigal

Every game designer should make one explicitly world-changing game. Lawyers do pro bono work, why can't we? — Jane McGonigal

The opposite of play isn't work. It's depression. — Jane McGonigal

No object, no event, no outcome or life circumstance can deliver real happiness to us. We have to make our own happiness - by working hard at activities that provide their own reward.15 — Jane McGonigal

There is no problem that doesn't have some underlying need for more optimism, stamina, resilience and collaboration. And games are, I believe, the best platform we have for providing that. — Jane McGonigal

I worry a lot about people using games just for marketing, to get people to buy more stuff, which I think would be the worst possible use. — Jane McGonigal

A short practice that you do every day is better than a long practice you keep putting off to tomorrow. — Kelly McGonigal

It's a bit counter-intuitive to think about the future in terms of the past. But ... I've learned an important trick: to develop foresight, you need to practice hindsight. Technologies, cultures, and climates may change, but our basic human needs and desires - to survive, to care for our families, and to lead happy, purposeful lives - remain the same.' p 5 — Jane McGonigal

My goal for the next decade is to try to make it as easy to save the world in real life as it is to save the world in online games. — Jane McGonigal

We've been playing games since humanity had civilization - there is something primal about our desire and our ability to play games. It's so deep-seated that it can bypass latter-day cultural norms and biases. — Jane McGonigal

The real world just doesn't offer up as easily the carefully designed pleasures, the thrilling challenges, and the powerful social bonding afforded by virtual environments. Reality doesn't motivate us as effectively. Reality isn't engineered to maximize our potential. Reality wasn't designed from the bottom up to make us happy. — Jane McGonigal

Even in the Stone Age, the rules for how to win friends and influence people were likely the same as today's: Cooperate when your neighbor needs shelter, share your dinner even if you're still hungry, and think twice before saying "That loincloth makes you look fat." In other words, a little self-control, please. — Kelly McGonigal

We can boost our immune systems by strengthening our social networks and decreasing stress. — Jane McGonigal

It seems like what happens when we play games is that we go into a psychological state called eustress, or positive stress. It's basically the same as negative stress in the sense that we get our adrenaline up, you know, our breathing rate quickens, our pulse quickens. — Jane McGonigal

Games are providing rewards that reality is not. — Jane McGonigal

Even if you never increase your physical or social resilience, seeking out more positive emotions every day alone can add a full decade to your life. — Jane McGonigal

You can deal with stressful life experiences with strength from past ones. — Kelly McGonigal

What's really amazing about games is how they change our emotional response to challenges — Jane McGonigal

Games are work. There are economies popping up in games now because people value them. — Jane McGonigal

We need to separate the real rewards that give our lives meaning from the false rewards that keep us distracted and addicted. Learning to make this distinction may be the best we can do. — Kelly McGonigal

There's no reason why the 'Lost' alternate reality game had to be officially made by the 'Lost' production crew. — Jane McGonigal

Compared with games, reality is disconnected. — Jane McGonigal

It may have once been true that computer games encouraged us to interact more with machines than with each other. But if you still think of gamers as loners, then you're not playing games. — Jane McGonigal

Over time, the games we play can change how we think and what we're capable of. And it's easy to maximize the benefits so the changes are positive. — Jane McGonigal

During this kind of highly structured, self-motivated hard work, Csikszentmihalyi wrote, we regularly achieve the greatest form of happiness available to human beings: intense, optimistic engagement with the world around us. We feel fully alive, full of potential and purpose
in other words, we are completely activated as human beings. — Jane McGonigal

Surveys of thousands of gamers have shown that they're more likely to play real music if they play a music videogame. So it's an interesting relationship where the games aren't replacing something we do in real life, they're serving as a springboard to a goal we might have in real life, like learning to play an instrument. — Jane McGonigal

I want gaming to be something that everybody does, because they understand that games can be a real solution to problems and a real source of happiness. I want games to be something everybody learns how to design and develop, because they understand that games are a real platform for change and getting things done. And I want families, schools, companies, industries, cities, countries, and the whole world to come together to play them, because we're finally making games that tackle real dilemmas and improve real lives. — Jane McGonigal

Scientists have demonstrated that dramatic, positive changes can occur in our lives as a direct result of facing an extreme challenge - whether it's coping with a serious illness, daring to quit smoking, or dealing with depression. Researchers call this 'post-traumatic growth.' — Jane McGonigal

I want to see a game designer nominated for a Nobel Prize. — Jane McGonigal

In the future, I think it's pretty plausible that collective intelligence tools and skills will be important in order to be a part of global dialog, global business, and global creativity. People who know how to negotiate collective intelligence networks are going to be in a good position to contribute to global society. — Jane McGonigal

If you can manage to experience three positive emotions for every one negative emotion ... you dramatically improve your health and your ability to successfully tackle any problem you're facing. — Jane McGonigal

Today, I look forward and I see a future in which games once again are explicitly designed to improve quality of life, to prevent suffering, and to create real, widespread happiness. — Jane McGonigal

Reality is broken. Game designers can fix it. — Jane McGonigal

Self-compassion-being supportive and kind to yourself, especially in the face of stress and failure-is associated with more motivation and better self-control. — Kelly McGonigal

When parents or gamers ask me, 'What's the best game to play?' I say that playing face-to-face is more beneficial than playing online. — Jane McGonigal