Habits are Infinite But Not a Game

Continuing on the subject of Forever Goals and Infinite Games, let’s compare them to habits. As a reminder, an Infinite Game is one you play so that you can play it. It is intrinsically fun. The goal, if there even is one, is to get better so that you can keep playing. A Forever Goal is something you will always want, but can’t really achieve. You approach a Forever Goal. Asymptotically. Over infinite time. I think there’s a connection. Since you can only approach a Forever Goal with constant work, I think designing an infinite game that incidentally gets you closer is a good strategy. Habits can also work, but for different reasons. Habits aren’t designed to be fun. An infinite game is more like a bad habit. They’re both addictive. Good habits usually aren’t. BJ Fogg, author of Tiny Habits [ad], says to design habits that are so small that you will still do them even when you aren’t motivated. They need to be easy because they’re not fun. Infinite games, however, are fun. They are…