Why do so many people become addicted to their favourite sports team or their favourite sports heroes? I recently went to an AFL football match to watch my team, Collingwood, and while I enjoyed the football itself, what struck me even more was the people. Adults, kids, families, every one of them watching with such intensity, such emotional involvement, living through every moment as if their own lives were on the line.
This was not passive entertainment. The look on their faces was the look of high engagement, high focus, high excitement, high anxiety, high obsession, even high anger, especially directed at the umpires. When their team did something right, the emotion was pure joy, happiness, celebration. When the team missed or conceded a goal, the feeling turned instantly to sadness, frustration, and disappointment. These emotions were raw and real. For much of the game I was more entertained watching the crowd than the match itself – the highs and lows, the intensity that never seemed to fade. I saw parents with children crying when their team lost. I saw strangers hugging and high-fiving when their team scored. And when the game ended, as I walked out, every single conversation around me was about the game. Regrets, excitement, analysis: “Did you see that?” “Did you see him play that ball?” “Did you see that mark, that goal?”
So what is it that drives people who are not actually playing, who are not directly part of the game, who gain no financial reward, yet follow these players – complete strangers – as if they were family? What makes sports crowds so obsessively involved, so emotionally addicted? The answer is simple: the human brain is addicted to the ‘feeling of winning’. Countless neuroscience studies confirm this. The brain’s reward system floods with dopamine when we experience, or even just anticipate – a win, producing the same chemical rush as food, money, or love. That chemical surge creates excitement, focus, motivation – it sharpens the brain’s functionality to its peak. The crowd is not technically winning, but their brain believes it is. By identifying with the team, by feeling part of the club, the brain treats the team’s success as their own – a phenomenon psychologists have long documented as ‘vicarious winning’.
Clubs and sporting organisations know this. They know how powerful the psychology of winning is, and they deliberately build it into their culture and marketing. They don’t just sell a game; they sell belonging. They make supporters feel like they are part of the family, part of the journey. “When we win, you win.” And when fans believe that, their brains light up as if they had scored the goal themselves. The brain functions best in that moment of high excitement and alertness, that’s when learning is at its strongest. That’s why sporting clubs work so hard to make supporters feel ownership, to feel like they are the club. Because the brain is naturally addicted to winning, or even just the hope of winning.
During that same game, I met a man sitting next to me who supported the same team. He knew every statistic of every player – their averages, their positions, their numbers – instantly, without hesitation. He analysed the game with such sophistication and precision that I thought to myself: this man is a mathematical genius. The way he recalled and connected the data was brilliance in action. When I asked him what he did for a living, he said he worked at a supermarket stacking shelves. And there is nothing wrong with that, but what struck me is that no one had ever recognised the genius in him. He had unlocked a deep level of learning, analysis, and pattern recognition, simply because he was so engaged, so focused, so emotionally tied to the feeling of winning. The brain in a state of deep focus and excitement learns automatically, it absorbs without effort. He didn’t memorise stats as a chore; he loved it. He read, he researched, he remembered, because the excitement of winning drove him to learn.
Now imagine if we transferred that same addictive energy from watching others win to ourselves. Imagine if, instead of living through a team, we felt that same rush of winning every single day in our own lives. The tragedy is that most people don’t recognise their own wins. They don’t celebrate them. They don’t bank them. And if you don’t recognise your wins, your brain doesn’t reward you for them. You deny yourself the dopamine, the excitement, the flow state that makes learning and growth effortless. So instead, people seek the feeling of winning by watching others – sports teams, celebrities, even gamers – because the brain craves it. But the truth is every single human being wins every single day. You just don’t stop to notice it.
Psychologists and neuroscientists have proven that the feeling of winning produces one of the most powerful neurological responses we know. It creates what Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi famously called ‘flow’ – a state of total absorption where learning and creativity skyrocket. Gaming psychology has understood this for decades: researchers have shown that points, levels, and achievements hook us not because of the game itself, but because of the brain’s craving for constant progress and victory. Now think about what happens if you bring that same psychology into education. Every small win is recognised. Every achievement is celebrated. Every step forward releases dopamine and creates momentum. Suddenly learning is not a chore – it’s an obsession.
This is why I created TeachingBlox. It is the AI teacher that learns about you first – your strengths, your weaknesses, your passions, your emotions. It recognises your wins and builds on them. It helps you earn points, level up, and see your progress in real time. It doesn’t let your daily victories slip past unnoticed; it makes them visible, meaningful, and exciting. It analyses your gaps – knowledge gaps, skill gaps, emotional gaps, confidence gaps – and guides you in a way that turns those gaps into wins. Because when your brain is in the state of winning, it is in the state of its best learning.
Education must change. The old system of memorisation, static curriculums, and grading by red marks on paper has failed. It kills imagination, creativity, and resilience. It ignores the psychology of winning – the most powerful driver of human focus and growth. In a world racing forward with AI, humans will only thrive if we tap into the limitless potential of our own brains. And that potential is unlocked through the daily recognition of winning.
When you shift the feeling of winning from watching others to living your own wins, you discover the truth: you are the most important player in your life. Your relationship with learning changes. Your relationship with yourself changes. And your capacity becomes greater than you ever imagined. That is the ultimate way to learn, the ultimate way to grow, and the ultimate way to prepare for the future. It makes the feeling of winning daily, addictive, and life-changing.
That is why I built TeachingBlox – to put the feeling of winning in your hands, every single day.
By Ross Paraskevas, Founder & CEO at TeachingBlox