Simon Tyler

What you are up to, in your career or across the span of your entire life can be described as ‘the game you are playing’.

Are you playing your own game, or taking part in someone else’s? Are you paddling along (waiting for something to change), or actively creating or noticing positive change?

My learning with Coachville, the work of Thomas Leonard’s and later Dave Buck (www.coachville.com) shifted my thinking using the game metaphor. The deeper you go into the game analogy the better it fits.

This week I invite you to consider what you are up to. Not to detail your actual game, but first to consider the sort of game that describes your current status, in one of 3 ways:

Are You Playing a New Game?
You are in new areas, expanding personal boundaries. You are increasing your capability and experience. It is likely that your mental space will be occupied with uncertainty, reticence, and need for study and connection with those already playing the game. You spend your time learning how things get done. Who does it well and who does it badly? Finding the fast route, getting comfortable with uncertainty.

Are You Playing a Bigger Game?
A bigger version of that played before. The stakes are higher, the risks are greater, and your win is potentially greater. It’s a stretch from what you’ve achieved in the past. Many people consider they are playing a bigger version of their game, but they simply aren’t. Outrageous goals live here, seemingly impossible dreams are tackled in this game zone.

Are You Becoming a Master?
You have been playing ‘your game’ for a while and have achieved great things. You are seeking the supreme masters in your field, finding mentors and are actively mentoring others, learning the finer subtleties of your game. You play at a high level, you are letting go, or outsourcing peripheral stuff and move beyond expert to masterdom.

My challenge to you is to decide which you are playing and get into it fully. If you are finding it difficult to match to any of them, you are probably stuck, get a coach, talk to a friend, make a choice and get moving. Take action now. Extended stuckness will have further symptoms which may manifest in ways that take you away from the joy and riches that lie just ahead for you.

Decide, where are you now, what game are you playing. Play the version of your game brilliantly, now. Don’t wait anymore.

I will write more about each game state in the weeks ahead, and remain your guide and coach.

Keep me informed,
I remain yours,
Simon