You won’t probably argue that self-control is a valuable skill. It can help you greatly in work and literally save personal relationships. But how to develop one and learn to control those impulses? An answer that may please you is… gaming.
Online Games
All games you play at RetroBet Casino and the like are, in fact, self-control exercises. Take poker or slots, for instance. Each can be very intense and unnerving. Inexperienced players usually give in to emotions and bet aggressively. Then, they lose (most commonly) and learn to maintain their cool under pressure.
The effectiveness of gambling in this regard is that you are playing with real money. Even if you are playing with bonus money, for instance, at euteller casino (they have quite a big welcome offer), you’re still very interested in winning. And because your interest is so genuine and strong, your brain takes it seriously and learns faster.
Chess
Of course, chess must be on this list! It demands deep concentration and foresight. You must think several moves ahead and consider potential consequences. And you must be patient, too. Some of your moves may not bring immediate benefits. More than that, they may even appear disadvantageous. You thus learn to wait.
The beauty of chess is that it’s a free exercise. You don’t spend anything (but don’t win any real money either).
Sudoku
Sudoku isn’t for everyone but it has its fanbase. Here, you will fill a grid where every row, column, and section will contain digits from 1 to 9. Sudoku primarily challenges logical thinking and concentration. So what does it have to do with self-control?
The thing is that when working on the grid, you may be eager to guess, instead of relying on logical deduction. That’s a strong impulse that is always misleading. So, after you make a few errors, you usually learn to keep it under control.
Go
If you’ve never tried playing Go, you should, at least, give it a chance. It’s a very elegant game. Put very simply, you’ll gain territory on the board by surrounding your opponent’s pieces. In practice, it’s all a bit more complicated, of course.
The game teaches self-control because it is slow and strategic. You can’t win fast. You can’t achieve an advantage fast. Just as in chess, you need to wait for the right moment.
SimCity
Surprised to see it here? For those of you not in the know, SimCity is a game where you design and manage… a city. Yes, no surprises here. It may sound pretty simple but it’s a huge challenge in practice. You need to keep in mind lots of things including its economy, utilities, and community services.
This game showers you with challenges and by doing so, teaches you resilience. You eventually learn to exercise restraint, mirroring the self-control needed in real-life management and administration.
The Sims
If we have SimCity here, The Sims will also do, won’t they? Yes, why not! This game is beneficial for self-control because it gives you some insights into it. As a player, you control the daily activities of one or more virtual people. You thus see how different decisions have direct consequences on the Sims’ health and happiness. You see what makes them lose their temper or freak out. And you actually learn to better understand your own emotions as well as the resources needed to control them.
Cooking Mama
Ehm, and what is the sweet Cooking Mama doing here? Well, if you’ve seen The Bear, you already know that cooking is the most stressful thing of all. And if it’s so, it’s just the perfect environment for you to learn self-control! In Cooking Mama, things are luckily less tough than in The Bear. You’ll just need to follow recipes under time pressure. Still, things do get stressful at times so you will have your portion of self-control practice.
***
Practicing self-control sounds like a stressful challenge in and of itself. But it won’t have to be like this. Not if you choose to practice it through gaming!
