Gamer’s mindset

Jane McGonigal studies how skills and traits cultivated through gaming (particularly, computer gaming) can be applied to solve real-world problems. She uses the term “gameful mindset” to describe the state of anticipation of success at the task we engage in and our willingness to study and utilize our unique strengths, which are analogous to unique “special abilities” in gaming terms.

I think this kind of gameful mindset plays an important role when amateur photographers transition to being professionals. I am not talking about necessarily taking a plunge to become a full-time pro right away. In my case, for example, I enjoy a challenge of tackling professional projects as mini-missions in a computer game. The similarities between them are numerous: in both cases there are challenges to overcome, skills to learn, people to interact with, etc. I always anticipate success at the particular project, but at the same time, because I am not doing photography full-time, the stakes are not so high that failure is not an option.