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The Motivation Problem

Anyone who’s ever faced rehabilitation after an injury, surgery, or illness knows that recovery isn’t just about the body: it’s a mind game. The repetition, the discomfort, and the slow pace of progress can sap motivation. You may have heard the words before: “I’ll do it later”, “It’s boring”, “It’s repetitive” or “I can’t find the time”.And yet, consistency is everything in rehab. Missed sessions mean missed milestones.

If you’ve ever heard me speak at a conference, a couple of my go-to phrases are “It’s not a knowledge deficit, it’s a behaviour deficit” and “It’s not that people don’t know better, they don’t do better”. Pretty much everyone has got the memo: rehab exercises are important, they know that eating more veggies is important, they know that going for a walk more often is important; but knowing doesn’t always translate to doing.

But we’re evolutionarily hard wired to seek calorific food, conserve energy and avoid pain. If we’re going to overcome these physiological barriers to achieve both rehabilitation and public health goals, we’re going to need to pull on more motivational strings than just saying “it’s good for you” or “it’s important”. We’ve got to find a way to pull the levers that lead to endorphin pathways, and where we can leverage ‘fun’ and ‘social connections’, we may stand a chance of motivating society to actively engage in their rehab and treatment.

Here’s where gamification, the use of game-like elements in non-game contexts, is stepping in to change the rules of recovery. What if your daily exercise routine could feel more like a challenge than a chore? What if your progress was visualised as levels completed, trophies unlocked, or goals achieved? For many people, that’s not just a fun idea, it’s the difference between giving up and getting better.

Taking Serious Games Seriously

It’s just Super Mario and Minecraft right?