Spending a few hours here and there playing video games can be a lot of fun. The thrill of beating a boss or figuring out some Doom 3 locker codes can be quite thrilling. While it may seem like you are just passing time, the reality is that you are learning quite a bit when you play video games.
In fact, there are many life skills that can be learned or perfected by playing video games that can help you in many areas of your life. It can be as obvious as understanding technology better from being a gamer, or something less obvious like problem-solving.
In this article, we will go over several skills that you can acquire from playing video games that will help you in life.
1 – Problem-solving
The biggest barrier to solving a problem is the brain itself. It is a two-part problem in that your brain isn’t trained on how to look at problems from different angles, and, secondly, that emotions get in the way of seeing solutions.
When you play video games, you are likely getting some adrenaline pumping and emotions can cloud your judgment. It becomes very difficult to get to the higher rounds unless you’re able to find a way to push your emotions aside and think clearly. This happens so often when playing video games that you’re essentially training your brain to stay calm so you can make good decisions.
Challenges are everywhere in video games. There’s no way to play without your brain going full speed or just not paying attention. This trains your brain to see areas where you can get around a problem. This then becomes a habit and you are able to use this skill with regards to work, relationships, and many other facets of life.
2 – Learn from failure
Doing well at a video game usually means failing quite often. Yet, it’s the failing that helps you beat the game. The key is to learn from the failures and mistakes to be able to use those lessons to do better.
The same holds true for other aspects of life. Work suddenly becomes easier to deal with when you’re able to shut off the emotions that come from suffering a defeat. You can move on much more quickly and take the lesson to do better next time you are in a similar situation.
3 – Find shortcuts
There are loopholes and exceptions to just about every situation in your everyday life. When you are a gamer you are more likely to exploit them since this is the only way to go about succeeding in a video game.
It becomes a habit to search for a cheat code or an easter egg in a game that will help you get what you need. It works the same way in real life so you can cut short some of the time it takes to do things the right way all the time.
