Find A Game Within The Game

Michael Jordan, who’s known to be one of the most competitive people to have ever played sports, has his own ways of cultivating personal high-performance. Being self-aware of what he responds well to, he uses games and competitions to pull him to be at his best. Because of that, he’s known for playing games within games.

For example, he’s on the basketball court playing against the Utah Jazz. The game is obvious, two teams, 4 quarters, the team who scores more points wins. But with 2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, Jordan would make up a side game - To extend the lead from 4 points to 10 points. And he’d take over to win that mini-game, which of course puts him in a better position to win the real game.

There are a few things just about everyone responds positively to, among those are urgency and a clearly defined task. That’s the environment playing a game creates. Long-term high-performance is made up of many moments of high-performance done consistently. A way to get yourself to step up in the short-term, so that you can stack instances of high-performance, is by creating short-term games that demand more of you.

Here’s my favorite way of doing that. I find fulfillment and joy in holding myself to a high standard so that I can live an extraordinary life and make an extraordinary impact. To achieve that, I need to show up at my best every day. So I play a game called the Win The Day Game. The criteria for winning involves meeting outlined expectations for myself in my exercise, diet, sleep, work output, time on social media, and other things. Each one of those focus areas is its own game within the game. I’m committed to winning each, and motivated to make good choices in each so that I don’t ‘lose the day’.  It’s by creating a game like this that I stay consistent in doing the fundamentals that support my health and career goals.

It’s easy to do and it really works. Play a game to not press the Snooze button in the morning, and to not check social media until after your workout is done. This will help you to make the most of your mornings. Or a game to see how many days in a row you can hit your #1 goal for the day.

There are mechanics we can use to support us in being the best version of ourselves. These mechanics aren’t crutches, or only needed for people who don’t have discipline, they’re the environmental design pieces that help high-performers achieve at the level they do. And if you incorporate them, you will too!