Strong medical research and firsthand accounts provide evidence that playing games can make you a healthier, happier, more confident person.'ĭaniel H. 'For those in search of a new self-help regimen, 'SuperBetter' might just be the answer. You’ll never say that something is “just a game” again. It includes stories and data from people who have used the SuperBetter method to get stronger in the face of illness, injury, and other major setbacks, as well as to achieve goals like losing weight, running a marathon, and finding a new job.Īs inspiring as it is down to earth, and grounded in rigorous research, SuperBetter is a proven game plan for a better life. SuperBetter contains nearly 100 playful challenges anyone can undertake in order to build these gameful strengths. Your natural capacity to motivate yourself and super-charge your heroic qualities, like willpower, compassion, and determination.

Your power to turn anyone into a potential ally, and to strengthen your existing relationships.Your ability to control your attention, and therefore your thoughts and feelings.Being gameful means bringing the same psychological strengths we naturally display when we play games-such as optimism, creativity, courage, and determination-to real-world goals.ĭrawing on hundreds of studies, McGonigal shows that getting superbetter is as simple as tapping into the three core psychological strengths that games help you build: She explains how we can cultivate new powers of recovery and resilience in everyday life simply by adopting a more “gameful” mind-set. In this book, McGonigal reveals a decade’s worth of scientific research into the ways all games-including videogames, sports, and puzzles-change how we respond to stress, challenge, and pain. Today nearly half a million people have played SuperBetter to get stronger, happier, and healthier.īut the life-changing ideas behind SuperBetter are much bigger than just one game. These rules led to a digital game and a major research study with the National Institutes of Health. What started as a simple motivational exercise quickly became a set of rules for “post-traumatic growth” that she shared on her blog. But rather than let herself sink further, she decided to get better by doing what she does best: she turned her recovery process into a resilience-building game. Unable to think clearly or work or even get out of bed, she became anxious and depressed, even suicidal. In 2009, internationally renowned game designer Jane McGonigal suffered a severe concussion.

An innovative guide to living gamefully, based on the program that has already helped nearly half a million people achieve remarkable personal growth

Super Better by Jane McGonigal