From Doing to Playing - how You grow personally and professionally when defining and playing Your Game
Have You ever caught Yourself pushing through an activity, determined to do whatever it takes to be able to tick off Your physical or mental TO DO list? Have You ever started Your day planning to do what You have been avoiding for a long time, finding Yourself having done something else by the end of the day? It happens to me all the time, and it was not until I learnt about the Concept of Play by MCC Dave Buck I fully understood how I could approach things differently and not only grow myself, but also support my clients in doing so.
In short, the Concept of Play includes the definition of any challenge as a Game. It could be a business game, a career game, a health game, a relationship game or any other area where You want to accomplish results still to be recognized a such. In this Game, You assume the role as the Player. And as a Player, You are defining Your objectives, Your actions, Your resources, Your challenges and the skills You need to develop. As a Player, You will learn from Your progress, Your successes, Your areas of improvement and You do this by involving other people. The Game starts now, not at any undecided point in the future, and You play until the Game is over. When the Game is over, you learn from Your results and then You set up a new Game...
Sometimes I meet friends and clients who are very clear on what support they need for their Games and are able to mobilize their various environments to support their Game objectives. It happens that their Game even gets bigger because of the input and inspiration they get when involving others. More frequently though, people seem to be careful and reluctant in asking for support and sharing their ambitions with others as part of their belief system. So, how can the Concept of Play help?
When playing instead of pushing through, You want to improve, You want to become better at what You do, You want to go that extra mile and You want to experiment instead of just getting it done. You might even find it fun as you get expected and unexpected results along the way! You want to document Your learning, and You want to open up to other ideas to see if Your game can get even bigger. And, not at least, You may want to share your findings and insights with people around You. Suddenly You find Yourself inspiring others to assume the role as a Player as well.
You may question the Concept of Play for many reasons. How likely is it that adults will see themselves as Players and define their challenges as Games? It sounds interesting, but it sounds very timeconsuming and difficult to put on top of everthing that needs to happen on a daily basis. And, why should anyone else be interested in what my Game is? There are probably loads of individual answers to these questions, but after having attended exensive coach training based on the Concept of Play earlier this year, I can refer to my personal experience as well as the feedback from my co-Players:
Playing is fun, but as adults, we need to get reminded of the reasons why it beats Doing. It is unfamiliar to describe a personal or a professional challenge as a Game, but when done, the focus is tremendous and the documentation of the Game strengthens the learning taking place. The Game becomes part of Your every day life if You are playing big and involving others. I remain positively surprised by how often and warmly people around me want to support me in my Games. The main challenge seems to be my own ability in being bold on what I need and why.
This article in one of the results in a Game I played earlier this year, the Visibility Game. Are You ready to assume the role as a Player? If so, which Game are You up for? If You found this topic interesting, stay tuned for the upcoming launch of LifeVille, a web-based platform for adults who want to challenge themselves as Players and play the real games of their lives supported by others.
Have You ever caught Yourself pushing through an activity, determined to do whatever it takes to be able to tick off Your physical or mental TO DO list? Have You ever started Your day planning to do what You have been avoiding for a long time, finding Yourself having done something else by the end of the day? It happens to me all the time, and it was not until I learnt about the Concept of Play, by MCC Dave Buck, that I fully understood how I could approach things differently and not only grow myself, but also support my clients in doing so.
In short, the Concept of Play includes the definition of any challenge as a Game. It could be a business game, a career game, a health game, a relationship game or any other area where You want to accomplish results still to be recognized a such. In this Game, You assume the role as the Player. And as a Player, You are defining Your objectives, Your actions, Your resources, Your challenges and the skills You need to develop. As a Player, You will learn from Your progress, Your successes, Your areas of improvement and You do this by involving other people. The Game starts now, not at any undecided point in the future, and You play until the Game is over. When the Game is over, you learn from Your results and then You set up a new Game...
Sometimes I meet friends and clients who are very clear on what support they need for their Games and are able to mobilize their various environments to support their Game objectives. It happens that their Game even gets bigger because of the input and inspiration they get when involving others. More frequently though, people seem to be careful and reluctant in asking for support and sharing their ambitions with others as part of their belief system. So, how can the Concept of Play help?
When playing instead of pushing through, You want to improve, You want to become better at what You do, You want to go that extra mile and You want to experiment instead of just getting it done. You might even find it fun as you get expected and unexpected results along the way! You find it valuable to document Your learning, and You want to open up to other ideas to see if Your game can get even bigger. And, not at least, You may want to share your findings and insights with people around You. Suddenly You find Yourself inspiring others to assume the role as a Player as well.
You may question the Concept of Play for many reasons. How likely is it that adults will see themselves as Players and define their challenges as Games? It sounds interesting, but may also be seen as very time consuming and difficult to put on top of everything that needs to happen on a daily basis. And, why should anyone else be interested in what my Game is? There are probably plenty of individual answers to these questions, but after having attended extensive coach training based on the Concept of Play earlier this year, I can refer to my personal experience as well as the feedback from my co-Players:
Playing is fun, but as adults, we need to get reminded of the reasons why it beats Doing. It is unfamiliar to describe a personal or a professional challenge as a Game, but when done, the focus is tremendous and the documentation of the Game strengthens the learning taking place. The Game becomes part of Your every day life if You are playing big and involving others. I remain positively surprised by how often and warmly people around me want to support me in my Games. The main challenge seems to be my own ability in being bold on what I need and why.
Writing articles for the CoachNetwork are among the results from a Game I played earlier this year, the Visibility Game. Are You ready to assume the role as a Player? If so, which Game are You up for? If You found this topic interesting, stay tuned for the upcoming launch of LifeVille, a web-based platform for adults who want to challenge themselves as Players and play the real games of their lives supported by others.
