What game are you playing? How do you know if you're winning?

Coming out of a weekend where an?Elite 8?became a?Final 4, awards of the Academy were distributed, and the top 10% of global Crossfit athletes faced down?quarterfinals… I got to thinking about games. And all the games I play on purpose—and those that might be playing me, without me realizing it.

And because I had some time away from work (negotium) to do some free thinking (otium), I let my mind run wild with the concept of 'games'.

Whether we are actively conscious of it every time we do it, most of us have a way we make sense of things. It's usually some combination of:

• personal experience;
• reputable sourcing online (or trying to figure out what is reputable vs. not);
• observing the world around us;
• talking to and with others we trust / know more than us;
• some analysis and synthesis of all of the above.

Sometimes this process takes a long time before we form or change our own opinions, beliefs, assumptions. Other times, it takes milliseconds.

I have been working on my practice to consciously make sense of things. It's imperfect and evolving, which makes it ripe for sharing with trusted collaborators like you.

Roughly, here's my three-step practice around the concept of games.

Step 1:?What’s shining brightly for you? Which related words come up?

For my purpose, I am using?games.?

• I write down: rules, scoring, game day, practice, referees, prizes, rituals, winners, losers, sportsmxnship, jerseys, teams, courts, stadiums.?
• What does the concept of?games?bring up for you?

Step 2:?Grab a few ingredients from what comes up and start cooking.?

Resit the gravity of a question that only has one answer.?

Here are a few from my sketching:

• What game am I playing?
• What game is playing me?
• Who is keeping score?
• Who is the audience?
• Who is the referee?
• Is the game writer playing the same or different game?
• Are you winning?
• What is considered a penalty?
• What game are you practicing for?
• Will you ever retire from this game?

Step 3:?Land in a single gravity or keep the tabs open. Or both.

This is by no means the?Magic 8-ball?of your mind. Rather, it’s a jungle gym and some backcountry trails. There’s zero gravity, which means no anchors.

And let me be clear: confusing yourself is part of the process.

Hovering above a topic allows us to break free from single gravity opinions, beliefs, and assumptions. Prompts like those above give us permission to hold many things in tension and visit/revisit underlying belief structures. This exercise also enables us to evolve in dialogue with others and with new sources of information.

And with that, I better get back in the game. The midday lunch hour makes for a nice daily 'halftime' for the game that is Monday—doesn't it, though? ;)

But before I go, my wish for you:

May you hike on untraversed trails in your mind;?

May you be confused, before sense-making & making-sense;?

May at least one game in your life bring you bliss-joy;??

May you help others win—wherever & whenever you can.

Note: This was a remixed version of TRTL Adventures' weekly newsletter. For the complete edition on games, check out The Score. It include an iconic photo of me and my best friend in 1999 if that helps encourage your click-thru :)

Credit and thanks to Nitzan Hermon’s?brief/prompt frameworks?and?Critical Business School methods.