Matter. It is, without question, one of the most profound dopamine releases the brain ever experiences. Every single human being hungers for the same thing: the feeling that they matter. The feeling of being seen. The feeling of being important. The feeling of being valued, of being useful, of being understood. People knowing who you really are. People recognising the truth of you. This craving sits at the base of everything, our decisions, our thoughts, our identity, our lives. We all want that feeling. And it’s not just a nice idea; it’s a neurological certainty. The brain is wired to chase it.
Even those who commit crimes, even those who do terrible things, underneath it all, they’re chasing the same need. “I want to be heard. I want to count. I want to matter.” And because they never felt that mattering early on, they twist and distort the hunger until it drives them to destructive acts. The feeling of mattering lights up the brain’s reward system. It makes us want more. That’s why winning feels so electric. Winning tells the brain: you’re useful, you’re important, you matter. And when you combine winning with mattering, you create a surge of growth, positivity, problem-solving, achievement. The brain comes alive.
This is why gamified education is not just clever, it’s essential. Because gamification is matter + winning, tied together, sustained over time. And when the brain lives in that state long enough, it builds the most powerful mindsets of all: growth, gratitude, love, authenticity, and flow mindset. Every single human being wants this. Even the ones who deny it. Even the ones who pretend they don’t care. Scientifically, neurologically, they do.
But there are two main ways we chase the feeling of matter.
The first is acceptance. The easy way. Fit in. Look good. Get the nod. For a moment, you feel like you’re winning, because a group approves. But the cost is quiet and brutal. To buy acceptance, you sell small pieces of yourself. You edit your truth. You bend your values to fit a room, a friend circle, a status club. Step by step, you drift from the person you’re meant to be. The subconscious is not fooled; it knows misalignment and punishes it with anxiety, anger, stuckness. And yes, this is why vulnerable people get recruited into hard edged extreme groups: the hunger to matter is real, and certain narratives with tight networks exploit it by offering belonging and a fast track to “you matter here.” It can feel like a rescue. For a while, it even works. But it’s the wrong kind of mattering because the price is your authentic values, your independent thinking, your future potential. It narrows your life. It narrows your mind. It blocks the chance to discover the superstar genius actually living inside you.
The second is achievement. The better way. The rarer way. Achievement is not about pretending, not about applause, not about fitting in. It is about winning for real. It is about progress that is yours, built by your effort, your mistakes, your courage to keep going when it’s easier to quit. Every time you take a risk, every time you fail forward, every time you push and learn, you are telling your brain: I matter, I am growing, I am alive.
When this happens, something powerful shifts. Your subconscious doesn’t just accept you, it celebrates you. And once that happens, it’s unstoppable. Tiny wins turn into fuel. Momentum builds. Joy takes over. You don’t need others to clap for you because you are addicted to the real thing, addicted to better, addicted to growth, addicted to the next step.
Acceptance demands you shrink so you can be kept into a group that may not really be aligned with your best self. Achievement dares you to rise so you can finally free yourself to be your best yourself and advance to the superstar genius living inside you. This is why I say – gamifying education is the only way to real learning. To real growth mindset. To real change forward. Not gimmicks. Not fake smiles. The right way. Earning points. Unlocking levels. Clear goals. Clear level up moments. Instant feedback. Recognition that is real, not faked. This is how you wire the brain to win every single day. Not empty badges. Not plastic praise. Real progress. Real feedback. Real wins that light up the mind and make you hungry for more.
I’ll never forget what a mother told me only very recently, “My daughter lost all her confidence in school. TeachingBlox rebuilt it brick by brick. Daily wins. Small challenges she could see herself conquering. Every point, every level, every recognition gave her confidence to get back a piece of herself. Within months she wasn’t asking for permission anymore. She was racing ahead. No one handed her confidence back, she earned it. She achieved it. Win by win. Point by point. Until her brain remembered what it feels like to matter.”
And it’s not just her. Too many kids carry life-sentences that were never true: “I’m not a maths kid.” “I’m not creative.” “I’m not smart.” “ I am a failure.” Another father told me exactly that: “My son’s just not a math kid. That was the label stamped on him. Teachingblox started stacking tiny wins , bite size challenges, instant feedback, instant customised adjustments, fun gamified leaning earning points, a caring teacher, a caring wizard mentor. Two weeks later my son wasn’t saying, “I can’t.” He was saying, “What’s next? I can’t wait for more ” The previous fixed self label was finally broken. The small wins created real Achievement moments, and this has rewritten the story of my kid’s journey, whose life has now changed forever.” Real stories, real life change.
A red mark on paper should never, ever break a child’s spirit. Yet that’s exactly what the flawed educational grading system does. It segregates. It separates. It tells some kids they are worthy and others they are not. It stamps fixed self labels onto them before they’ve even had the chance to discover who they really are. And once that stamp sinks in, curiosity dies. Confidence drains. A child who once believed anything was possible starts whispering to themselves: “I’m not good enough. I can’t.” Unfortunately the student believes it and a life journey of insecurities begin.
But when you flip it, when you measure growth instead of grades, when you give instant feedback that builds instead of shames, when progress is made visible and celebrated, everything changes. The brain lights up. The win is felt. And when the brain feels a win, it wants more. One win becomes two. Two becomes ten. Confidence compounds. Curiosity compounds. Identity shifts. The story in their head moves from “I can’t” to “I’m becoming.”
And here’s the real magic: daily, authentic wins don’t just rebuild learning, they rebuild the child or adults themselves. I have witnessed this first hand. They create three unstoppable mindsets:
Growth. Mistakes stop being shame; they become information, fuel, a step forward.
Gratitude. Every small win feels like progress. Every piece of progress feels like a gift.
Love. Love of learning, love of self, love of the journey.
Sustain that long enough and the brain enters a flow mindset state – the sweet spot where challenge meets skill, goals are clear, feedback is immediate, and time disappears. It’s the moment when your engagement and focus level are at peak capacity. Flow mindset is freedom. Flow is power. And once someone tastes it, you never need to push them again. They pull themselves. They want it. They crave it. They can’t stop. And this is where TeachingBlox lives. This is why I built it. Because every human being deserves to feel they matter , not through shallow acceptance, but through real achievement.
TeachingBlox doesn’t just teach; it learns you first. It adapts to you. It studies how you think, how you learn, what excites you, and then it gives you daily wins that are real. Points and levels that actually mean growth. From Level 1 basic to Level 15 mastery, it feels like an adventure , a pathway where every challenge stretches you just enough, every piece of feedback shows you how to get better, every recognition tells you: you are moving forward, you matter. The goal isn’t complicated. It’s to bring back what schools and systems have stolen from too many kids: the love of learning. To make winning daily. To make mattering daily. To switch curiosity back on. To smash the false fixed labels that have weighed kids down for years. Families feel it. Communities feel it. And those heavy labels children carry , “not smart,” “not creative,” “not enough”, they don’t just fade. They crack. They shatter. They disappear.
My job, my obsession, is to change this for as many people as I possibly can on this planet. Humans striving to be their best is the only game that matters to me. Every person I meet, every conversation I have, every life that crosses my path must leave feeling seen, important, and capable. They are more than a label. They are more than a grade. They are capable of learning deeply and of doing extraordinary things they have never yet imagined, precisely because the fixed, flawed labels they were given can be broken. As a teacher, mentor and founder, I never tell people what to think. I never tell them what to learn. I learn them. I listen. I dig in. I learn the rhythms of who they are, the patterns of how they learn, the shout and whisper of their gifts. Then I give them the tools , the questions, the challenges, the feedback, so they can discover how to think, how to learn, and how to love the process. Watching somebody find themselves, grow into their own unique person, and step into their best version is the deepest joy I know.
That is the heart of TeachingBlox. A personalised AI teacher that learns you first, that maps your patterns, that gives you daily wins so you feel the lift of mattering every single day. From Level 1 basic to Level 15 mastery, a pathway that feels like an adventure, one small win at a time, and with each win your confidence rises, your thinking sharpens, your hunger for more lights up. When achievement becomes the habit, mattering explodes. Joy grows. Curiosity returns. Identity shifts from “I can’t” to “I’m am.”
This is why I built TeachingBlox, to give everyone the chance to be free to become their genuine, authentic superstar self. Every human being matters. Every single one of them deserves to feel it, daily. Because when a person discovers they truly matter, their life changes forever. And when enough people feel that, the world changes too.
By Ross Paraskevas
Founder & CEO at TeachingBlox