Playing the Game

Underneath the uniform, I'm a gamer at heart.  Gaming is probably the only passion in my life that predates my training!  I find them intellectually and socially stimulating, across multiple gaming types: card games, board games, word games, sports, games of chance, even video games (which makes me a hit with the kids).  Gaming is such a part of who I am that sometimes, when I analyze situations in my life, I find that I don't always use my 'Black Belt Eyes'.  On those occasions, I use a gamer's eyes to find understanding and direction.

Through these eyes, the UBBT/Live Project is another kind of game, and a very good one at that.

A well-constructed game isn't just about repetition.  There's a sense of graduated demands, where skills and situations that occurred in the early part of the game return to raise the stakes in later stages of the game.  If every stage of a video game was like the first stage, it would quickly become boring, so later levels tend to add an extra twist to make the game more difficult and interesting.  Football may have a lot of repetition during the game, but every new play is an attempt to adjust for the opponent's responses, so the game evolves over time.  Even in blackjack, after the first hand is dealt, it changes the probability of future cards showing up in your hand.  All of these twists serve to make the game engaging, fun, and worth replaying again and again.

If your workouts are beginning to feel like a routine, congratulations on becoming acclimated to the training, but you might also want to take that as a signal that it's time to tackle another evolution soon.  Since our program is largely self-driven, the game only evolves when we do, which also makes it worth playing only when we make it that way.

Since your opponent in 'the UBBT game' is yourself, the way that you play the game is the only factor that determines whether you win or lose.

What games are you playing with your UBBT/Live experience this year?  Are you playing the 'if I'm really good with my diet this week, I will let myself eat a slice of pizza with my salad' game?  How about the 'one more minute on the treadmill' game?  Maybe the 'today I push to level 10' game?  Have you tried the 'three acts of kindness before I leave work/school today' game yet?

How is your 'next level' different from your 'current level' and 'past level'?  What must change in you in order to complete the newest part of your game?  Do you need to learn something?  Try something different?  Beat a more challenging objective?  How must you evolve?

Talk to you all again soon.  I'm off to work on my game some more.  Train hard and play harder!