Do you want to play a game?

It’s fun, rewarding, makes you think, only takes a few minutes, and you can play with friends…are you in?

While visiting family in New Jersey and my aunt Launy asked me if I had ever played Wordle. When I said that I never heard of it, she gasped with amazement, and part excitement, because she knew she was about to change my life.

If you’ve never played Wordle before here is the 30-second pitch. It’s a 5-letter word game where you try to guess the “word of the day” every day. The goal is to guess it in as few guesses as possible. You can start with any 5-letter word your imagination can think of and you get 6 total guesses. Each time you guess a word, the color-coded boxes give you clues to whether or not that letter is in your word and where it is located. Green means you found the right letter for the right spot, while yellow means the letter is in the word but not in the right spot. Each day the game starts over and you have a new word to guess. Everybody in the world is trying to guess the same word.

Just 2 weeks later since I saw my family in New Jersey, my aunt and I have texted almost every day about our Wordle score. It’s become a habit for me each day to open my phone to the Wordle page and play. My brain looks forward to the challenge. The competitor in me wants to try and beat my aunt and uncle each day. The team player in me asks my kids for word suggestions and help. They are 8 and 6 so they don’t offer a ton of help, but it’s fun to include them and get them thinking too.

I’m amazed (and a little scared) at how quickly Wordle has become a habit for me to play each day. I don’t do it at any certain time of day. Sometimes I forget and the text from my aunt reminds me. “Wordle 3 for both me and Dan (my uncle) today,” she’ll text me.

It got me thinking about habits and how stupidly simple they can be to build them.

All you need is a cue, an action, and a reward.

The CUE: Since the phone is an extension of everyone’s hands these days, you can play whenever you want. As long as you have your phone in your hand and you encounter a small slice of boredom, you can pull up Wordle.

The ACTION: Playing a thinking game. I love things that make me think. It’s why I love reading 40+ books a year. Any action that makes my brain feel like it’s accomplishing something is always where my brain will lead me. It’s a trait I picked up from my dad, who would do the daily newspaper word jumble with the focus of a Formula1 racecar driver.

The REWARD: Therein lies the reward of accomplishment. The feeling of satisfaction for completing an unfinished task. You also have the reward of statistics. Wordle shows you your score for the day and tracks your scores over your career. You get a “Congratulations!” pop-up that tells you how great you are for solving the word. A final reward is getting to compare your scores to friends and family. Connection and community are a big reward knowing everyone you play with is trying to guess the exact same word. Wordle is great about asking how you would like to share your score over social media or with friends.

I’m really blown away at the brilliance and simplicity the makers of Wordle use to create these habits to make this simple word game such an addictive phenomenon. I know it’s nothing new in the world of games to use these simple principles like an interesting concept, a gamified/measurable experience, and the power of community, but it’s still impressive.

Before CrossFit exploded in popularity, it started with very humble beginnings and used these same techniques to gain traction. The site CrossFit.com posted interesting workouts that not many people had seen before. People were encouraged to track their scores and compete for their best times or reps. They would comment on the workout post and compare scores. They would cheer each other on and throw in plenty of friendly trash talk.

People who were bored with their workout routine found a rebirth of energy and enthusiasm for their fitness. Instead of dreading their workout, they were excited to wake up the next morning and see what workout CrossFit had released next. They were excited to meet up with friends to do the workout, and post their scores online for other friends to see.

If you’ve seen me share images with Bible scripture on them to my Instagram stories that’s another cue-action-reward habit at work. Every morning as I drink my protein shake to start the day, I open the YouVersion Bible app. It’s ten minutes of my day to hear a message, read some scripture, and pray. Then usually I’ll share that daily scripture on social if I think it can help someone else that day.

When you’re trying to create new habits for yourself, you don’t have to overthink them.

Sometimes we have to recognize the bad habits that have become part of our lives before we add good ones. The cue-action-reward process is so simple that we might overlook the negative things we do following this same format. We might spend too much time on social media, or click through too many YouTube videos, or eat something we didn’t want to eat, or watch Netflix way more than we wanted to, all because someone else is writing our habit process for us. A simple cue-action-reward process can either work for us or against us.

What’s a habit you’d like to change right now?

Let’s say you want to workout more and get more consistent with your workouts.

The CUE: How can you make the CUE more obvious to go workout? Put it in on your calendar. Set an alarm. Organize your gym clothes in advance. Reserve your class time every night before bed. Drink a protein shake at a certain time. Put on a song that raises your energy level. Have a picture displayed of yourself or of someone who motivates you to go workout.

The ACTION: Don’t just do the action, enjoy it! If you can’t have fun with it, at least give it some deeper meaning. That advice includes coming to FitTown. Don’t “just show up”, if you don’t leave feeling better than you came in. Come in with a great attitude and allow yourself to have a great time.

The REWARD: What immediate gratification do we give ourselves when a workout is done? Give and get fistbumps from friends. Take a moment to tell yourself how proud you are of yourself for showing up today. Have a delicious protein shake post-workout that replenishes and restores you. Log your score on SugarWOD and give and get more fistbumps.

Let’s give intention to the way we set up our world so that we can give ourselves cues to perform good habits, and also avoid bad ones.

If you’re having difficulty setting up your environment outside the gym for success, reach out to a coach. We’re here to help.

And if you want to take me on in Wordle, let’s go!

-Coach Tony