Top 100 Mcgonigal Quotes
#1. Self-awareness: the ability to realize what we are doing as we do it, and understand why we are doing it.
Kelly McGonigal
#2. We have to accept as a society that games are not escapist. They really do change us.
Jane McGonigal
#3. The single biggest misconception about games is that they're an escapist waste of time.
Jane McGonigal
#4. 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
#5. The is a secret for greater self-control, the science points to one thing: the power of paying attention.
Kelly McGonigal
#6. 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
#7. You can't play the same game every day for years. New games are key.
Jane McGonigal
#8. 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
#10. Games are unnecessary obstacles we volunteer to tackle.
Jane McGonigal
#11. 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
#12. As Deb Lemire, president of the Association for Size Diversity and Health, says, If shame worked, there'd be no fat people.
Kelly McGonigal
#14. 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
#15. 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
#16. Go after what it is that creates meaning in your life and then trust yourself to handle the stress that follows.
Kelly McGonigal
#17. Clinically speaking, depression is a pessimistic sense of your own capabilities, and despondent lack of energy.
Jane McGonigal
#18. 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
#19. 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
#20. We are moving towards a new form of collective intelligence.
Jane McGonigal
#21. 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
#22. Ask your brain to do math every day, and it gets better at math. Ask your brain to worry, and it gets better at worrying. Ask your brain to concentrate, and it gets better at concentrating. Not
Kelly McGonigal
#24. He loves productivity seminars because they make him feel so productive - never mind that nothing has been produced yet.)
Kelly McGonigal
#25. We all have the tendency to believe self-doubt and self-criticism, but listening to this voice never gets us closer to our goals. Instead, try on the point of view of a mentor or good friend who believes in you, wants the best for your, and will encourage you when you feel discouraged.
Kelly McGonigal
#26. A short practice that you do every day is better than a long practice you keep putting off to tomorrow.
Kelly McGonigal
#27. People come up with resolutions that don't reflect what matters most to them, and that makes them almost guaranteed to fail.
Kelly McGonigal
#29. I'm not a fan of simulations. Where, 'Oh, we'll go play a simulation of world peace and figure out how to make peace' and then somehow magically that will get translated into the real world. No, that's not the kind of games that I make.
Jane McGonigal
#30. Chasing meaning is better for your health than trying to avoid discomfort.
Kelly McGonigal
#31. 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
#32. Games that make you feel good about yourself are good games to be playing.
Jane McGonigal
#33. Game designers are obsessed with emotion. How do we create the emotions that we want gamers to feel, and how can we really make it this intense, emotional experience?
Jane McGonigal
#34. Games are work. There are economies popping up in games now because people value them.
Jane McGonigal
#35. Things like depression and obesity are global challenges.
Jane McGonigal
#36. 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
#37. When you choose to view your stress response as helpful, you create the biology of courage.
Kelly McGonigal
#38. What's really amazing about games is how they change our emotional response to challenges
Jane McGonigal
#39. You need to develop mental habits that allow you to activate the same brain patterns we activate during gameplay.
Jane McGonigal
#40. Every game designer should make one explicitly world-changing game. Lawyers do pro bono work, why can't we?
Jane McGonigal
#41. 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
#42. 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
#43. 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
#44. My mom is a public school teacher and works with third grade students.
Jane McGonigal
#45. 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
#46. The biggest enemies of willpower: temptation, self-criticism, and stress. ( ... ) these three skills - self-awareness, self-care, and remembering what matter most - are the foundation for self-control.
Kelly McGonigal
#47. When you choose to connect with others under stress, you can create resilience,
Kelly McGonigal
#48. [ ... ]while we all have the capacity to do harder things, we also have the desire to do exactly the opposite.
Kelly McGonigal
#49. In entertainment, we have a comfort level with crisis.
Jane McGonigal
#50. Avatars are a way to express our true selves, our most heroic, idealized version of who we might become.
Jane McGonigal
#51. 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
#52. When your mind is preoccupied, your impulses - not your long-term goals - will guide your choices.
Kelly McGonigal
#53. 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
#54. A dramatic decrease in oil availability is not at all far-fetched.
Jane McGonigal
#55. The intelligent want self-control; children want candy. - RUMI
Kelly McGonigal
#56. There's no reason why the 'Lost' alternate reality game had to be officially made by the 'Lost' production crew.
Jane McGonigal
#57. We wrongly but persistently expect to make different decisions tomorrow than we do today
Kelly McGonigal
#59. The more we consume, acquire, and elevate our status, the harder it is to stay happy.
Jane McGonigal
#60. 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
#61. '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
#62. 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
#63. 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
#64. 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
#65. The development of willpower -I will, I won't and I want- may define what it means to be human.
Kelly McGonigal
#66. I didn't accomplish what I set out to do, but I realized I had set out to do the wrong things
Jane McGonigal
#67. 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
#68. 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
#69. Feeling burdened rather than uplifted by everyday duties is more a mindset than a measure of what is going on in your life.
Kelly McGonigal
#71. I want to see a game designer nominated for a Nobel Prize.
Jane McGonigal
#72. 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
#73. 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
#74. When we know our strengths, we're more likely to use them.
Jane McGonigal
#75. 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
#76. You can deal with stressful life experiences with strength from past ones.
Kelly McGonigal
#77. 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
#78. '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
#79. 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
#80. 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
#81. 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
#82. Game design isn't just a technological craft. It's a twenty-first-century way of thinking and leading.
Jane McGonigal
#83. When we're stressed, our brains persistently mis-predict what will make us happy.
Kelly McGonigal
#84. 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
#85. 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
#86. I've been running since high school. My boyfriend was on the track team, and I'd run with him.
Jane McGonigal
#87. 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
#88. 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
#89. 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
#90. When we play a game, we tackle tough challenges with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we're more likely to reach out to others for help.
Jane McGonigal
#91. 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
#92. 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
#93. 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
#94. 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
#95. I don't do 'gamification,' and I'm not prepared to stand up and say, 'I think it works.'
Jane McGonigal
#96. I don't want a gamer to feel like they have to commit their whole life to changing the world.
Jane McGonigal
#97. There are people who are very dismissive of games and gamers.
Jane McGonigal
#98. 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
#100. 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
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