Picture this: I'm sitting on the couch, recovering from a long day at the office and chasing around toddlers, the kids are safely tucked away in bed and I'm watching a TEDtalk. The speaker is Jane McGonigal, and she's telling the audience about her life-changing brain injury and how she built a game to help her fix her brain.
Now I have to tell you, it's VERY rare that I will buy an app, especially one of the more expensive apps, on a whim. I'm very frugal with my iWallet. (I wish I could say the same about the non-digital version!)
However, my initial visceral reaction to Jane's story was to go and download the app. iWallet aside, the app that Jane built just seemed too good to be true... I had to see it for myself!
Jane built an app called "SuperBetter." Okay, so at first it was called "Jane the Concussion Slayer" and was built to help her after a concussion that left her brain in serious trauma. Jane, the Concussion slayer, created tasks and quests that she had to play out as her character, which would help her not only beat the game, but heal her brain in the process! Once Jane had beat the game and healed her brain, she realized that this game could help other people heal their brains too, and thus with a wee bit of re-branding, SuperBetter was born!
But here's the cool thing about SuperBetter... it's not really just for healing brains. You can truly accomplish any goal you want to with this application. It's a combination of positive thinking and taking on your minor goals one at a time. Sometimes we focus too much on the big picture and forget about the steps it'll take to get us there. Trying to achieve big goals can be discouraging, so by implementing the tasks into tiny little "power ups" we are able to accomplish what we want one teeny tiny step at a time.
Jane provides some excellent scientific research that I'm super is super scientific and researchy, but it really didn't mean much to me. I wanted to try the app for myself and see if it worked! So... of course, iWallet be damned, I downloaded it!
I've been using the app for just over a week and I can already see the goals taking shape. I started with small goals and I've worked my way up. Every time I get a "power up" for doing things as simple as chugging a glass of water, or taking a walk around the block, I feel like I've accomplished something cool.
When I can defeat a bad guy, like "self-critical behaviour" or making bad food choices, I feel like a total badass!
When I can accomplish a quest? Like, writing 3 extra blogs this week, or eating at home every night in one week, I feel like a millionaire! (So does my wallet!)
Really what the app comes down to cognitive behavioural therapy. We're re-training our brains to do things we SHOULD be doing, but for whatever reason, we're blocking ourselves from accomplishing it.
Everyone has that behaviour they'd like to squash, or a major life goal they want to accomplish. Whether it's buying a new house, a car, opening a business or building up a super-awesome blog of awesomeness, we all have goals. SuperBetter is just one easy way of accomplishing them step by step — and feeling like a superhero while you do!
Printer-friendly version