Mindset, money, BrickBreaker – oh, my!
Have you ever played BrickBreaker? I have. While others may think we’re just “playing a game”, we know that we’re actually taking advantage of an experiential learning tool that has crucial implications for our success in business. (It’s a good story, and I personally am sticking to it.)
For those of you who have not yet discovered this powerful tool for business development, here’s how it works. The goal is to destroy as many bricks as possible by keeping what I call the wrecking ball in play: bounce it off walls, off the controlling paddle, and, of course, off the bricks themselves. Various additional weapons may be released when you destroy a brick: bombs, multiple wrecking balls, lasers…you get the idea. If you fail to keep the ball in play, you lose one of the three “lives” with which you start the game. Three lives lost and the game is over. The good news is that additional “lives” can also be released from a destroyed brick.
I realized there were over a dozen key lessons I learned from that time I spent slaving over a hot BlackBerry, so I’ve broken them into categories. The first lessons have to do with the mindset you bring to your business.
Your mindset impacts your productivity, effectiveness, and results.
- Acknowledge that, just because you could do something, it doesn’t mean you necessarily should do it. One of the possible outcomes in BrickBreaker is that the paddle used to bat the balls back and forth flips directions (if I move the trackpad right, the paddle on the screen moves left). I found that 99% of the time I lose a turn the very first time I attempt to maneuver this “flipped” paddle. In other words, I stink at this maneuver. I’ve decided that, even though I’m giving up the chance to earn some points by “winning” the flipped paddle, I won’t take advantage of this option—it’s a short-term gain that costs me in the long run.
- Stretch your comfort zone, but do it intentionally and strategically. Setting higher performance goals for myself is all well and good, but I’m not going to get carried away with it. I have yet to make it to level 34 with the ball traveling at a moderate speed; I’m not going to drive myself crazy by trying to achieve the top level while playing with a ball that moves fast. Similarly, if your highest-priced coaching program currently runs $2000, you’re more likely to sabotage yourself than increase your revenues if you decide to raise it in one swoop to $5000.
- Resist the temptation to be greedy. If I have a chance at three different bonuses, I’m often tempted to try snagging all of them before the ball goes out of play. All too often, in attempting to get everything, I lose the ball and get nothing. Bummer. Wonder if this also applies to keeping too many business irons in the fire at one time…?
- Be willing to accept a short-term inconvenience to achieve a long-term result. One of the things I most dislike is catching (stopping) the ball with the paddle, because it slows the action down to a crawl. However, if the choice is to catch the ball or let it go out of play entirely, I’ll catch it. Better to take small, slow steps forward than to bring all motion to a halt.
- Be prepared for challenges, but don’t assume they’re inevitable. I know that Level 13 is almost as much of a challenge for me as Level 16, and I think I often degrade my performance by on it by psyching myself out before I even start play on it. While it makes sense to prepare for this level by accumulating as many “free turns” as I can on Levels 1 – 12, it doesn’t make sense for me to tense up and assume the worst. What’s the point in creating an unproductive self-fulfilling prophecy for myself?
Once you’re mentally prepared for success, you get to apply your creativity to your work, so that you get the results you want. That’s the topic of Thursday’s post.
What’s been your experience with getting your head in the game? What works for you when it comes to creating a winner’s mindset?
By the way, thanks to AlicePopkorn for posting her image in the Creative Commons section of Flickr.
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