Play A Bigger Game!

Achieve More! Be More! Do More! Have More!

Rowdy McLean

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781118302576
• eBook ISBN: 9781118302583
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Small Business
• Index: Business

The tricks and tools you need to get more out of life than you ever thought possible

Everyone wants more of something: more fun, more money, more time, more love, more friends, more knowledge, and Play A Bigger Game: Achieve More, Be More, Do More, Have More is the book you need to achieve—and exceed—these goals. A motivational resource and practical guide for helping individuals, companies, and organisations to realise their full potential, the book breaks down the challenges that can get in the way of success into easy to implement ideas and action plans.

Written by one of Australia's most successful motivational speakers, Rowdy McLean, a man who has spent the last decade studying the key drivers of success and achievement, the book contains more than just goal setting advice, it's a definitive guide to goal kicking, helping you not only define what you want but providing the tools and resources you need to turn those dreams into reality.

• Packed with real-life examples that illustrate the concepts and practices presented
• Includes unique chapter-specific videos accessible by QR codes
• The definitive guide to getting what you want

Filled with simple tools and strategies designed to help you get more out of life, Play A Bigger Game has everything you need to get where you want to go.

Chapter 1: Break out of the cotton wool society

Today we live in a cotton wool society and I am over it! There are so many rules, so many regulations and so many people telling us what we can and can’t do. You go to the beach and there are signs telling you don’t run, don’t rollerblade, don’t fish, don’t skate, no bikes, no phones, no cars, no alcohol — essentially no fun! Don’t swim, don’t run, don’t walk, don’t talk, don’t eat, don’t drink. There are all these things you can’t do. You go to work and you’ve got occupational health and safety rules, all these human resource regulations, risk management. Stop doing this, start doing that, don’t go here, don’t go there. All the things we can’t do, but not much about what we can do. We get caught up in all the cant’s and it stops us from stepping out and stepping up. We get so used to constantly being told where to be and what to do that we lose the ability to take charge of our own lives, to be responsible for our own behaviours, results and outcomes.

It seems to me the world has gone crazy! We create more rules to protect people from harm and try to influence their behaviour. Some of these things border on the ridiculous: schools ban kids from turning cartwheels; proposed laws require you to walk your dog; teeth cleaning is mandated in daycare centres; licences are required for just about everything from fishing to busking.

Within this cotton wool protection, we are too afraid to take up the adventure of life because we have all these people telling us we can’t go there, we shouldn’t do it, we shouldn’t try it, we shouldn’t give it a go.

More and more people are living their lives vicariously through watching reality television shows. We watch MasterChef but eat fast food. We watch The Biggest Loser rather than go to the gym. We would rather watch Survivor than set out on our own adventure, and rather watch The Apprentice than start a business ourselves. Then we get nice and comfy on the lounge and we watch Jerry Springer just to prove to ourselves that, compared with others, our lives aren’t really that stuffed up.

We have become a nation of watchers, not doers.

The cotton wool society holds us back, putting us in boxes and applying labels that define us by our actions. From the day we’re born we are labelled: he cries a lot, she sleeps a lot, so there we are in our first box. Then we go to school and we get put in more boxes: she is good at sport; he is disruptive; she can dance. Then we go to work and get put in another box: he is not a team player; she doesn’t write good reports; he is not dedicated. Throughout life we are given more and more labels and are put into more and more boxes. The cotton wool society shapes the way we live. Everyone is expected to do things the same way and we get caught in this system and pattern.

The great achievers in life don’t fit into the boxes. They won’t accept being put inside a box or accept being labelled. They shrug it off. They create their own path and take responsibility for their own lives and results.

Are you living in a system of same old, same old, doing what everyone else does? It goes something like this: I’m born. I live in a family in a certain degree of financial security. I grow up in that family. I go to school. I go out into the wide world and look for a job. I find a partner. Everyone asks me when I’m going to have kids, so I have kids, and everyone wants to know when we are having another. Then everyone asks when I’m going to get a new job. The family is on my back about when we’re going to get a bigger house, a better car. Living life in this cotton wool society, you grow to believe that you need to do all these things in this way, following the same pattern.

Then you get to the stage when life is starting to run out, and you ask yourself, ‘What am I going to do when I retire?’ Then you retire, get a watch in a gift box, and do very little until you are put in your final box — and that’s the end of it. I don’t know about you but I refuse to live in these boxes. I refuse to accept the labels. I refuse to do the things that average people do. I refuse to participate in a world that has decided to watch rather than do.

Don’t get me started on the people who use social media throughout the day to register the non-events in their boring lives — every move they make! ‘just had a long flat white coffee with two sugars at Lala restaurant’; ‘just parked the car at qvb car park’. Do they really think anyone cares enough about their daily life to read all these silly messages? Isn’t it time they got a life and played a bigger game than they are currently playing? Did something remarkable or amazing? Created a life that was outstanding and then sent some messages about that you would really like to read?

I think we need to break out of the cotton wool society and create a different path, a path paved with enthusiasm, excitement and adventure, where we enjoy every possible moment, a path rich with rewards of happiness and fulfilment. Something absolutely awesome and amazing.

It’s time we took charge of our own welfare. It’s time we took responsibility for our own decisions, our own behaviour and, ultimately, the consequences and outcomes of our lives.

I’m fortunate in my life. I get to mentor CEOs, work with successful leaders and teams and the highest of high achievers. I also get to work with people and organisations that are stuck in a rut and going nowhere. I work with sportspeople and with schoolchildren. Most importantly, I get the opportunity to have many conversations with them about the difference between average and awesome.

When I talk to outstanding achievers, amazing teams and awesome organisations, they all say the same thing: there are two paths we can choose.

There are two paths that we can choose — the path of average or the path of awesome.

We can choose the path of average, which is very crowded, full of people caught up in the cotton wool society just doing enough to get by. They play safe: ‘We don’t want to get outside that cotton wool, or get caught up in something that might be a little bit risky, a little bit dangerous and a little bit adventurous, a little bit out of our comfort zone — even for a day.’

The second path is the path to an awesome life, the path to playing a bigger game. There are very few people, teams and organisations on the path to awesome. Why is that? Could it be because you have to do a little bit more, to make a bit more of an effort? You have to get outside that cotton wool, get outside your comfort zone and do things other people are not prepared to do.

Sourena — no limits

Sourena Vasseghi is a guy who just refuses to let the cotton wool society shape what he does and how he does it. Society is quick to label people like Sourena and loves to put them in boxes, tell them what they can and can’t do.

You see, at the age of two Sourena was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, but he just refused to accept the limitations that society believes should be placed on his life. In fact, he has broken all the rules. In 2001 he graduated from the University of Southern California with a business and marketing degree and opened his own marketing firm. He has written an award-winning book, Love Your Life and It Will Love You Back. These days he travels the country with his good friend Rich Finley, sharing his story and motivating others to live a life outside the cotton wool society.

If a guy like Sourena can find the courage to stare the cotton wool society in the face and say ‘No way’, I am sure any of us can take the opportunity to step outside of the box and see what happens.

Chapter 1 summary

• We live in a cotton wool society that keeps us inside our comfort zone and puts us in boxes.

• The great achievers in life don’t fit into boxes.

• We need to break out of the cotton wool society and create a different path that is paved with enthusiasm, excitement and adventure.

• We need to take responsibility for our own welfare and results.

• There are two paths we can choose: the path of average or the path of awesome.

My game plan (don’t skip this — it’s important)

Most people who read this book won’t do anything with the insights and ideas it inspires (sad, but unfortunately true). Let me tell you why. Most people will turn to the next chapter without pausing long enough to capture their ideas and thoughts. Yes, I know what you’re thinking: I’ll come back and do it later. No you won’t. So stop right now and take a few minutes to write down your ideas — your personal game plan. You don’t want to write inside a new book? Build a bridge, get over it. This book is about getting you better results, so you need a better plan. That’s where the ‘My game plan’ page becomes extremely useful. Capturing your personal thoughts at the end of each chapter will help you build up your personal plan step by step. These notes will be invaluable to you in the future. So do it, don’t turn to the next chapter till it’s done. Even if it’s just one idea it’ll set you on your way to playing a bigger game.

MY GAME PLAN:

Chapter 2: Play a bigger game!

So what does playing a bigger game mean? It means choosing to stretch yourself:

• to test the boundaries

• to become better

• to achieve greater things

• to be a better person

• to do things you have never done before

• to have things in your life you never thought possible.

There are some myths in today’s society about playing a bigger game — some ideas that are promoted as shortcuts to winning anything and everything you want.

There is the myth about the power of positive thinking. Perhaps you have read that book? All you have to do is be positive, just be positive all the time and life is going to be great. Think positive all the time and life will turn out just the way you want it to.

That is just rubbish and I refuse to believe it. There a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title Page
• Foreword
• Chapter 1: Break out of the cotton wool society
• Chapter 2: Play a bigger game!
• Chapter 3: You are awesome!
• Chapter 4: Change is a good thing
• Chapter 5: Play to your potential
• Chapter 6: You can do it
• Chapter 7: Stretch the boundaries
• Chapter 8: Five great lies-don't be misled
• Chapter 9: Beware the dream stealers
• Chapter 10: Make it happen
• Chapter 11: Get your priorities right
• Chapter 12: Make it real-paint the picture
• Chapter 13: Real reasons for success
• Chapter 14: No action, no results
• Chapter 15: Work smarter, not harder
• Chapter 16: Invest in yourself
• Chapter 17: Be proud