Are You Game?

“Are You Game?” is an informal way to ask if someone is willing to try something especially an activity that is unusual, fun or challenging.

If you have ever watched a game show, tuned in to watch your favorite team or brought out the board games with the family on game night or on vacation, you know what it means to play a game. What is your game? When I was young it was hockey and at the age of twelve, I discovered a game called golf. All my life I have loved to play. When we are children most of our days were filled with play. We learned to play with others. We learned to find games we could play on our own. We found things to play where we lost track of time. When we were done playing, we were planning to find the next time to play. We found playing to be fun, inspiring, exciting and energizing. We were discovering passion. Some kids played music, some played on stage as a character, and some played in a quiet room with a new favorite book. We learned to play.

Ok, fun and games time is over. It is time to work. It is time to get serious. It is time to do your chores. There is a lot of work to be done, and you must do your part. Did you make your bed? Did you cut the lawn? Did you get your homework done? We were learning to work. Some of it was enjoyable and some of it was not, but we were learning that we didn’t necessarily need to enjoy it, but we did need to do it. Some taught us that we needed to work hard and the harder we worked the bigger the rewards. When we got our first real job the reward became money and now, we could buy stuff. As we developed our skills, knowledge and the value of the work we did, we could make more money and buy better stuff. Then our habits and our stuff might tell us that we need to work harder. We learned to work.

If you learned to play and you learned to work, please take a moment to consider what percentage of your time is spent doing each activity. Depending on a person’s age or stage of life the percentages may vary, but my educated guess for most people that work greatly outweighs play in the time given to each.

I asked you in the title “Are you game?” Are you willing to take a closer look at your relationship with work and play? If so, let’s play!

I have written many articles over the past 25 years where I have shared a formula to get what ever you want out of life. The formula is T + F + A = R. It stands for our Thoughts + our Feelings + our Actions = our Results.

Let’s start with thoughts (beliefs). Is life work or play? Is marriage or a relationship work or play? Is parenting work or play? Is learning work or play? Is your career work or play? I realize that these things are not one or the other but if one of those categories was 90 to 100 percent work, you might want to introduce more play.

The way we think starts the process of moving toward the result you are looking for. Hopefully you are clear on the result you are looking for. If not, let’s talk.

The “F” or the Feelings and emotions we have because of our thinking are the fuel that helps move us to our goals. Are the feelings joy, gratitude, excitement passion, energy or fatigue, resentment, boredom fear, overwhelm, and complacency.

How you are thinking and feeling will impact how you act and the actions you take.

Playing energizes! Winning at the game you are playing energizes. Improving at the game you are playing energizes. Playing at a high level with other members of a team energizes.

When I was in university, I had a job that was pure work. It was hard and awful. It was in a hot, smelly factory working from 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. It paid pretty well but the greatest thing that it gave me was an understanding that it was not what I wanted to spend my life doing.

In my career in hospitality and my past 25 years in coaching, speaking, training and writing I have been blessed to be doing things where it was often hard to distinguish if I was working or playing. Of course, there were phases in my career where my job felt more like work than play and after long hours at one place I would go home and there might be a build up of work to do there. There was a time in the teenage years where parenting felt more like work than play and learning and development wasn’t as joyful because it felt hard to find the time.

I am now at a stage where marriage is play, parenting is play, grandparenting is definitely play, work is play, and learning is play.

Are you game?

No matter what stage you are in, the question is “would adding a little more play into your life enhance it?”

Is it time to be a little more playful? Is it time to replace some heaviness with playfulness? Would you rather work hard or play powerfully? Are you an impact player? Does the way you play inspire others to raise their game? Do you enjoy what you do? If not, what can you do to change that? If you can’t change that, should you change what you do?

Twenty-five years ago, I met a coach who made a statement that blew my mind. He said that I have to play everyday. Whether he surfed or played tennis, a pickup basketball game, cards, a board game or any form of play, it had to be in his schedule at some point of the day.

When I heard it, I was still working with the program that I had to work hard, play was more of a luxury. I started to learn that play was a requirement.

Can you find a way to play?

Are you game?