What Game Are You Playing?

This is a quick, insightful, easy to read book. Author Robin Moriarty encourages us to redefine success and examine our expectations. After all, we are the curators of our life, so why fill it with other people’s aspirations and expectations? Once we define what personal success looks like to us, we can shift our efforts to more meaningful pursuits and be freed from the burden of living according to other’s expectations. As a person who has always marched to the beat of my own drum, pursuing primarily those things that are personally meaningful to me, this really resonated with me. Five stars.

This is an interesting take on success and I love how the author starts with inviting the reader to redefine success, there's a moment she reflects and asks "why would I want it all? Why wouldn't I just want what I want and not what everyone says I should want?" I took a breather upon reading that because I realized that for most people success has been and always is defined by people's expectations of us. In the African set up, go to school work hard, get good grades, get a job and make your parents happy! It's always been what other people say that takes the lead and that was a moment of recollection for me.
The author explores various factors to consider in changing your game plan and it's a very interesting read, more practical from chapter 6.
I believe that this book is relevant and it also helps one to encourage young people and especially children when it comes to how we reward and punish certain behaviors.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

Life is full of choices. This book challenges the reader to redefine success in your own terms.

Dr. Moriarty believes that life is a game and it's important to play your own game...not the game that other people are playing or the game that they want you to play, but the game you want to play.

It is both exhausting and frustrating to compare yourself to other people and live by others' rules.

"Why would I want it all? Why wouldn't I just want what I want and not what everyone else says I should want?"

This book explains how to discover your own definition of success and then make the necessary changes in your life to achieve your new goals, ambitions, and dreams.

I think we are influenced a great deal by the expectations of our childhood family and peers. I came from a family of school teachers and I was gently (or maybe not so gently) nudged in that direction when it was time to choose a career. (Actually, being a school librarian was a good fit for me.)

Dr. Moriarty believes it is never too late to design your own game plan in both your professional and personal life. She has developed the following four-part framework as the organizing principle for your game;

Your game's objective - What are you pursuing? What do you want?
How you play the game - How do you spend your time, talents and resources?
What obstacles must be overcome - What are your challenges?
How do you keep score so you know you are winning?

The author provides many examples of how to use this framework to bring change to your life. She suggests that you start with little things that feel good to you and that help others see that there's been a shift in your behavior.

Change is not easy. This author has devoted her entire book to help you discover your own game and then play with passion and courage. It is not too late to change your thinking and take bold steps toward new and different adventures, careers, relationships or goals.

MY RATING: 5 STARS OUT OF 5

It is an easy to read, clear and really practical guide. There are not many steps to do and they are pretty simple at the first glance, but if you follow them you have a good chance to discover plenty things about yourself and people around you even, or maybe especially, when you are not so very young. What made me really think was building the new hourly plan for a regular day of my life. This kicks...
The author refers to many stories from her life showing that it took a long journey to reach conclusions described in this book. Thanks to that the book radiates with true humbleness, maturity and vulnerability. There are also quite a lot of examples showing how other people went from playing somebody else's game to finding their own one. They range from very small changes/games, e.g. how to use my lunch time, up to total redesign of somebody's life. The only drawback I see, as with almost all good self-development books, is that theoretically there could be individuals who take this as an inspiration to make a serious damage to others. Nevertheless, it is definitely worth to read and give the the (work)flow a try.

This book is based on an interesting question that you can pose to yourself - what game are you playing?

A CEO may be earning 10 times the people who report to him but is he winning the game of life? That depends on the game you're playing. If the game is, 'who earns the most?' then yes but if the game is 'who is the most content?' then maybe no.

A lot of times, the games we play are because of the conditioning we have as regards to the games we should play. But we have the power to change the game we are playing so that our success gives us lasting joy and contentment. The author talks about these ideas and then follows it up with choosing the right game to play.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.

What Game Are You Playing?:
A Framework for Redefining Success
and Achieving What Matters Most
by Robin Moriarty

Hardcover
Published September 10th 2019 by Greenleaf Book Group Press

Goodreads synopsis:
It’s All a Game

From the moment we are born, others' expectations shape our behaviors, choices, and definitions of success. We build our personal and professional lives around those expectations and at some point, many of us wonder if we are on the right path. We may want to make changes, but it's difficult and we don't know how to start.

In What Game Are You Playing?, author Robin Moriarty, PhD shares her view on what being “successful” should look like, and those views will be a surprise to many. According to Moriarty, life is a game, and it is up to each individual to determine just what kind of game they want to play. The author guides readers through a process that shows them how to assess their current state and outlines the steps they need to take in order to achieve their new game and own version of success.The book enables readers to—

• Gain awareness of the way they want to live their lives
• Reframe success on their own terms
• Map out what they will need to do to get there

Through a series of examples and exercises designed as a game, Moriarty helps readers recognize—and then step away from—the expectations of others so they can define and pursue their own version of success in work and in life. Through this process of finding and designing their own games,, readers will no longer be a pawn in someone else’s.

***

5 Stars

What a great concept for a book! I was hooked from the very beginning.

I have followed brain science, neuroplasticity, NLP (neuro linguistic programming) and behavior for years in multiple self help books. I just have a thing for learning brain stuff and how we motivate ourselves for change.

The title of this book really caught my attention. What the author had to say held it in place firm and steady. This gal knows what she is talking about. I felt like I had a mind blown moment during reading this. Why am I playing other people’s games? I don’t want what they want. My game should be different. I loved how she gave her own example as how she marks travel as her measure of success. How many places can she visit in a year. No matter the number, she wins! We need to make winning in our game of life the important thing and not pushing our own wants aside to please others who probably don’t give a crap if we succeed in our goals or not.

If you are looking for a way to change your life, READ THIS! If you are really serious, do the exercises. You might discover a way to win at your own game of life!

Great stuff. Highly recommended.

I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title.