Let's be honest: life is hard.

You're trying to make it as a creative, but you just don't know what to do next. You want to be more motivated, more confident, and more self-aware—but how?

Well… tracking XP can help.

You know how it feels to get XP? Like when you get a promotion or an award at work, or when your crush finally calls you back? That's what we're going to talk about today—how to make sure that feeling happens more often in your life, and how to use tracking XP as a way to make sure that it does.

In this video, I'm going to teach you how I track my own experience points in real life and how you can do it too.

It's simple: just track your XP, and watch the magic happen.

Here's my daily gamified journal that I use to track my XP and get meaningful stuff done in my life.

http://missioncontrol.geekpsychology.com/

It's a digital download that you can print off at home or at a nearby store.

Leveling up is a core mechanic in role-playing games, but does it have any relevance to real life? The answer is a resounding yes-- but how can you apply leveling up to your life, even if you're not the type of person who plays video games? Let's go.

Like in video games, the concept of “leveling up” is simple — you gain experience points, and your character becomes stronger, faster, wiser and more powerful. When we level up, we become the person capable of handling a challenge that would have previously been out of reach.

Leveling up: What does it mean?

The first thing to understand about leveling up is that it's not about getting stronger or faster or smarter than everyone else. It's about getting better at something specific — usually a skill or an ability — and becoming competent at that skill so that you have more options available to you.

The first law of Cybernetics and a presupposition of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) called "The Law of Requisite Variety" states that the system/person with the most flexibility of behavior will control the system. This means that the more flexibility of approach and mental dexterity that you have, the more likely you are to be able to handle whatever life throws at you.

The second thing is that leveling up takes time and effort. It's not about doing one thing over and over again until you get it right; it's about learning from your mistakes and improving each time so that you can get it right faster and more easily.

Can you really level up in real life?

When you play an RPG, there are a few ways to level up. You can fight monsters, explore, or you can complete quests, which also earns experience points. You can then spend those points on new stats or skills. In real life, we don't spend XP. XP naturally gets put into leveling up whatever skill you're using-- for good or bad, you're burning in the neural pathways that make you better at doing whatever it is that you're doing.

If you're playing a sport, for example, you can practice and get better over time. If you're reading books or listening to podcasts, that's also leveling up your intelligence—with a 10x modifier if you're actually putting it to use. If you're practicing escaping reality and being helpless, you are leveling up that skillset.

The reason using this mindset is so much harder than getting XP in a video game is because in real life there aren't many clear instant rewards for leveling up. It's not like an RPG where every time you kill a monster or complete a quest, you hear the ding and all the sparkles shoot off around you.

But what if we could apply this mechanic to our own lives? What if by completing tasks and gaining experience we could level up in real life? What would that look like?

The first thing we need to do is find a way to measure how much XP you get for completing tasks. Let's say that I want to level up in my career as a writer, so I decide that I get 1 XP every time I write something and 2 XP when someone reads it. The more I write, and the more people I get to read what I write, the more experience points I gain.

When I track it on my XP chart, I can see how much experience I've gained over time. If I write something every day and someone reads it every day, then in one week I'll have gained 21 XP.

The point is that with a system like this, you can see how much progress you're making and adjust accordingly. Set a number of XP that you're wanting to reach-- I use my level times 120 in my gamified journal-- and then focus on making progress towards it through gaining XP. You can click the link below or in the comments if you want to use it too. With using XP this way, what you're doing is you're actually making it inevitable that you achieve the things you want in your life. By doing the things that are important day in and day out whether you feel like it or not, you are transforming into who you want to become.

That's why leveling up is so addictive. The feeling of getting closer to your goal, whether it's building a business, achieving your fitness goals, saving for retirement, or getting better at a craft, is motivating and rewarding.

Aristotle said: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” And if you're going to be successful, then it's important that you create a habit of success. When you have momentum and traction and you’re on the path to something that you really want, you're less likely to struggle with dis-traction. If you really focus your attention on what is important to you, and stay in alignment with that every day, nothing can stop you from accomplishing whatever it is that matters most.

If you like the metaphor of "Life is a game" then you can always play better! And leveling up in real life is easier than you think.

1) Stretch yourself out of your comfort zone.

2) Be consistent with your actions every day.

3) Track your progress and reward yourself for making progress on what's important to you.