Make a Game Out of Your Problems

It’s interesting how rarely I use the word "problem." It’s not because I think problems don’t exist, nor is it that I’m afraid of them. When I’m writing or speaking, I tend to choose more neutral words so as not to further inflame something that’s locked in as a "problem" to someone.

Words like "subject" or "topic" or "situation" seem just as descriptive, but a little more neutral. Simply by identifying a subject, topic, or situation, it is easier to focus on change. And your focus is essential because when you give your attention to one topic, you are more likely to work with the dynamics to make changes that are helpful or empowering.

I have found that when people are focused on a "problem," they often get far more preoccupied and even expert on the dynamics and history of the situation as it is now, rather than moving forward. To find a solution, it’s important to move the attention to the "problem I cannot solve" to "solutions."

I suppose all this is part of the game I play. I like to play a game of empowerment. That’s a nice segue to what I really want to write about today, which is to create or name a game that helps you to be more successful or inspired in your life.

I often play this game of game naming with clients. Here are a few examples:

Game: Spicing up a Boring Job

First of all, I have to be honest, I have never had a boring job. On occasion, I have to do certain tasks that are less interesting to me than other tasks, but I have a very low tolerance for boredom. One of the games I play is: Do a boring task for a minimal amount of time, like, for example, 20 minutes. Or maybe only 7 minutes.

If you have a "boring job," you might find that regularly shifting the task will be helpful. Here are some ideas that I’ve suggested to shift the relationship to a boring job for different people. I’ve chosen names to give the people identities; of course, these are pseudonyms.

Spicing up Sally’s Job

Sally is in a corporate job that has had a variety of changes over the years, but it is essentially the same job she was doing 15 years ago. Because of changes in personnel (bosses as well as peers and subordinates), she has stayed interested in and challenged by the people to make the job tolerable. But she is often bored by the tasks she has to complete.

A while ago, I suggested that she write an article for the company newsletter about the innovations in her department over the last 7 years. Here’s an important caveat: my suggestion was to WRITE this article, and not to PUBLISH it. After it’s written, she can decide if she wants anyone to read it. I knew that if the writing only served to shift her relationship to her job, it would be a powerful process.

I gave her a few questions to stimulate her writing, and she agreed to write about 20-30 minutes at the end of each work day. When we spoke a few weeks after I gave her the assignment, she said that the writing so dramatically shifted her perspective of her job that she felt the fire again. Specifically, she found the enthusiasm for an innovative project that had been put on hold for several years.

Shifting Dull Meetings for Bob

On the back cover of Energetic Meetings, a book I wrote many years ago, I ask the question, "Do your meetings start at 9:00 sharp and end at 11:00 dull?" Most meetings go that way.

I frequently suggest to clients that they work with very specific energetic techniques and become witnesses to the processes. Working with certain colors or symbols or movements can shift the vibration of a group of people dramatically and also make meetings more interesting for the one who observes.

Bob relates easily to colors and also to sounds. Seeing and hearing are common ways of knowing about our environment. Seeing and hearing in the energy field can shift vibration quickly. So I described a very specific symbol for Bob to envision, in a specific color, and I asked him how that "sounded." He described the sound he was hearing and also made the sound so I could hear.

Together, we adjusted the symbol, color, and sound as we worked together on the room in which he was scheduled to conduct a meeting the next day. He could experience the differences as he worked energetically with me so that the next day when I would not be on the phone with him, he would feel skilled enough to work on his own.

His email report to me after the meeting was astounding. This particular group had met monthly, with a few personnel changes, for 8 or 9 years. In addition, the individuals found themselves with each other in other groups and meetings.

Bob said they had never laughed as much nor had they ever accomplished as much in one meeting as they did that day. He has continued to work with those images and now reports that his meetings are much more satisfying, whether he is leading them or not.

Change of Perspective

To me, the key to both these examples is a change in perspective. For Sally, it was to see herself as a journalist or reporter, so that she was viewing the situation to describe to others within her company, but outside her department. Sometimes I like to suggest writing or describing something as you would to your grandmother or a seven-year old or someone at a backyard picnic.

For Bob, his new viewpoint was to discern the energy field and sometimes to see from inside the energy field. He was working with some dynamics that were familiar, and perceived in very different ways.

I chose these as somewhat representative. The truth is, I have hundreds of similar examples. Sometimes, it is just a 1/2 degree turn of the head or considering a possibility before making a commitment, or just saying or thinking, "what if you look at it another way?"

Jeanie Marshall is a Personal Development Consultant and Coach
and a Certified QEC Practitioner
Call her at 310-392-1987 for an Private Consultation
Personal Consulting and Coaching