Playing Your Position in The Game of Life - Part 1

We're all in this game that we call life.

Sometimes it feels like a game gone-right, and sometimes it might feel like a joke-gone-horribly-wrong.

Either way, you're playing your position.

You're the player - which means you're the perceiver, you're the thinker, you're the feeler, you're the receiver and you're the reactor.

All of that affects how you play the game, how you approach the game, what you get out of the game, and how the game plays out for you.

No matter what game you're involved in, there are some game plays that'll help you play your position with a winning attitude.

I started this list and it got so long that I decided to present it in two parts. Part 2 will be featured next week.

Here is Part 1:

1) Establish Your Mindset.

What you think and how you feel is all about you. You can think what you thought yesterday, or you can start your day - beginning today - with new thoughts. You can choose different thoughts. You can choose thoughts that feel better. If you had something in your mouth that tasted bad, would you chew and swallow, or would you spit it out asap? So why keep chewing on those thoughts you thought about yesterday if they taste (feel) bad?

If you think what you thought yesterday just because it's what you thought yesterday - or just because "it's there" - you'll keep creating the experiences over and over.

Your mood and attitude matters.

Why choose thoughts that feel better? Because, well...it feels better.

If feeling better isn't enough icing on the cupcake - when you think thoughts that feel better and you feel better, your manifestations (results) also have to be better because what you manifest always matches how you're feeling. With consistent better-feeling-thoughts, your world improves immediately in the sense that you feel better, but also those things you wanted improvement in, will also improve. (This subject alone could be a whole blog).

The first step toward choosing thoughts that feel better is making a decision that you're going to do that. Do it first thing in the morning - choose it . Think about something that feels good. There's got to be something in your life that feels good. Think about it. Or, think about a feeling that feels good. Leave the garbage thoughts out of the game for just a little while.

The game starts and ends with you.

2) Approach your goals as if they're inevitable.

If you knew that your goals and the things you want to achieve, be, and have were a done-deal-no-questions-asked-sealed-with-a-kiss-arrangement, would you approach your game differently?

Say yes - because if you knew that, you wouldn't be doing a lot of the scrambling, justifying, struggling and worrying you're doing about those things you want that you doubt.

Why? Cuz you wouldn't be doubting them. When you don't doubt something - when you believe it - isn't your approach much different from when you doubt? Do you doubt you're going to eat some food tomorrow? Do you doubt that your head's going to be where you last left it when you wake up in the morning?

Thought so. Now approach your goals with that same certainty.

Have you ever searched for something that you thought was lost and you just couldn't find it?? Or have you ever looked for something and it was right there in front of you except that you couldn't see it because you were a hot-mess thinking about that thing you were bothered about yesterday? That.

It's there, but if you think it's lost, or you're cluttering your thoughts with resistance, you're going to miss what's there. It's there.

What you want is inevitable. You just have to know that it is without needing to see it yet.

3) Choose your response vs. reacting out of habit.

A habit is a practiced way of going about something. Recurring thoughts are just a habit. Reactions are nothing more than a recurring habit. Recurring behaviors are nothing more than a habit. Recurring conditions are nothing more than practiced expectations manifesting into reality.

Any habit is changeable. You're the one setting rules and reacting to the conditions.

The condition doesn't have control over you or your reaction. You can replace a old habit with a new one.

4) Be in the receiving mode vs. the opposition mode.

There's nothing you need to oppose. Standing in opposition to anything is like putting garbage on your what-could-be-a-clear-path to what you want. Just focus on what you want. Being in the receptive mode is being in the zone. Being in the receptive mode is being on-track to the solution which isn't being in the problem mode. Being in the zone is focus on what you want and feeling the inevitability and certainty of it. (Refer to #2 again if you need a reminder).

What you put your attention to - wanted or not - is what you attract, therefore, decide what you want to receive vs. what you want to oppose.

5) Look at where you're heading.

When you're going somewhere, do you look in the direction of where you're going or do you look at where you came from? When you throw or kick a ball, do you look where you don't want it to go or do you look at where you want it to end-up? If you look at the spot where you don't want it to go, where does the ball go? (This is not a trick question). ;)

Does it make sense to you that when you want something you must put your attention on your desire and how *it* feels vs. you-without-your-desire and how *that* feels?

Does it make sense to know your position (how you feel) as information relative to how you want to play your position? (how you want to feel) and to look and feel in that direction?

Don't let any temporary position distract you from where you're going. You're still in the game.

Your perspective about your position in the game has everything to do with whether you're throwing the ball and looking at where you don't want it to go, or throwing the ball and looking at where you want it to go.

6) Stop trying to control how the game ends and just be in the game now.

Your position in the game is what it is...for now, but your perspective can be different; and that changes everything. Do you have to reach the finish line right now? That's like eating an oreo cookie minus the middle. Or an eclair sans full-of-deliciousness filling. How decadent would either one of those be without the middle part?

Is playing the game all part of the process? Would it be fun to just get to the end of the game without ever having played the game and used your senses, your agility, your skill? Would you gain confidence at the game if you never applied your developing skills and just got to the score-board?

Life is made up of moments that are happening now - always on your way to more. You can be in the game and enjoy the game now. If you skip the middle, all you've got are two ends with nothing in-between.

7) Question your perspective rather than judge your position in the game.

"Winning" the game is about changing your thoughts and perspectives. Set yourself up to win with your mindset, which affects your mood and attitude - how you feel.

It's just a game - why are you taking it so seriously?

Your thoughts about the game make is pleasurable, painful or something in-between. It's not the game itself, it's your perspective.

Your perspective is changeable and so is the condition, but you've got to change your perspective for the condition to ever change.

8) On a scale of 0-10, let someone else's opinion of you be a zero.

You can't control someone else's opinion of you any more than you can control what the sun is doing. Let them have their opinion and focus on your game.

Trying to change someone's opinion of you has you playing their game - not yours.

9) Plateaus are not finish lines.

Plateaus are opportunities for clarity. Plateaus are landing places - where you get to take stock, assess what you want, re-direct or change direction, and focus anew from where you are now based on what you want now. (Refer to #4)

Plateaus don't mean you've failed, nor do they mean you're not headed in the right direction. Plateaus are always opportunities to align again.

Plateaus are new platforms from which to bounce from toward what you want now.

Playing your position is about mindset. Your mindset determines how you feel. How you feel as a result of your mindset determines your course of action. Your mindset and how you feel determines your game-plays, the players you play with and the players who want to play with you.

Using your mindset and how you feel as the rules you play by is how you become a masterful player of the game - and playing the game you want to play.

Stay tuned for next week's Part Deux of this post. And if you missed it, I was recently interviewed by Mary Lou Kayser on "Play Your Position" podcast, which talks about mindset no matter what the game is. Here's the link to that:

#braveblogging

Outlook on Life, Following Your Path, FreedomChristine MeyerOctober 9, 2015Comment