I took an intention to embrace my eldership / elderhood for a Transformation Game * this week and was so inspired and enthused by the outcome I thought I’d share some of the key highlights for you – highlights that can apply to any goal in life.
If you want to understand a little more about the game before reading further, whilst not essential, my highlights of a game with the intention of finding work/life balance might help.
My Beautiful Game – The Top Five Highlights
My initial intention was“I intended to step into 2025 with enthusiasm and a newfound purpose for myself, my life and business”
1. The wording of your goal is more important than you think
As I’ve discovered with 25 years of facilitating Transformation Games, coaching sessions and during my 5 day mindset challenge a few years ago - if you start with wording A for your goal, don’t be surprised if wording M/N/O or P is the one that lights your fire.
It’s so easy to think the wording isn’t important and to just get on with the planning and taking action.
And yet, it’s the definition of the goal that determines the destination and it’s that which inspires the motivation to take the necessary action – especially on a cold dark winter’s day when there’s no sign of progress and you might feel like giving up.
Two initial tweaks made a difference to my intention
It was similar when I had a goal to ‘write my book’. After a few tweaks it became ‘write an inspirational book that will make a difference’!
During my virtual five-day mindset challenge a few years ago, day one was supposed to cover defining the goal, and yet many people were still refining their goal on day five because it deserved the respect and time to get it right (which has me wondering if a goal setting 5 day challenge would be of interest - do let me know).
How can you refine your goal to make it feel, sound, and/or look more inspiring?
See this video about changing the words we using to describe the overwhelm or stress we're feeling which aligns with the belief that "words have power"
I said I wanted to be enthused and the first card I got was a guardian angel of enthusiasm – ie the overarching energy for the whole game was going to be enthusiasm.
It felt like I was being reminded that enthusiasm was an inside job - there for the asking -not something I had to take action to bring into being.
It’s as if that’s who I am so when I’m being me then it’s going to be there – and perhaps, more importantly, when it’s not there I’m listening to the musts, oughts and shoulds of other people too much.
How might you be asking for something that’s inherently and wholeheartedly you?
3. Life is a game or assignment
Two cards had me considering how I relate to my life were
If life is an assignment or game then life is about trial and error, for testing things out, learning, adapting and getting better over time.
We certainly don’t wait until we’ve written the perfect essay before we submit it – we try our best with the time we have, submit it and then wait for feedback.
We might like it if we get 100% for an assignment but we don’t expect it – we accept a lower % and know that over time we’ll improve our score as a result of the feedback.
How might seeing your current situation as an assignment or game take some of the pressure off getting it 100% accurate or perfect and allow you to take action?
4. Impatience is slowing you down
I got the “I’m tired of waiting” setback on the spiritual level – in fact, after zooming fairly effortlessly up the physical, emotional and mental levels, all of my setbacks and pain arose on the spiritual level!
For me the impatience of being tired of waiting results in a number of things
How is your impatience setting you back? And how can you release it (see final highlight for a suggestion)?
5. Have faith and trust in your higher self
After the game I went for a walk, and as I watched this heron for over 20 minutes I laughed that the heron’s patience was better than mine ie I left the heron still looking for a fish – with I assume trust and faith that if it kept doing what it was doing it would eventually achieve its goal.
This felt like it affirmed the setback in 4 above and two further cards
It’s as if the need for perfection, to know where I’m doing, to know where I will end up paralyses me – and yet if I slow down enough to listen to my intuition or higher self and have faith and trust in its guidance I will be amazed at where I end up (I did after all land on the transformation square of which there is only 1 in on each life path)!
How can you have faith in yourself?
If you're interested in other insights about goal setting you may like this video with this blog summarising the insights: where I took a goal (of growing my YouTube channel) on a walk and allowed nature patterns to provide insight (16 of them).
For more help to see the wood for the trees using nature and metaphor why not follow me on YouTube/ LinkedIn / Tiktok / Instagram.
My name is Alison Smith and for 25 years I’ve used nature and metaphor to help you see the wood for the trees, get out of the rut, stop going round in circles, turn a corner and shift from not knowing to knowing what to do.
There’s posts, poems, blogs, Landscaping Your Life YouTube channel, Landscaping Your Life with Alison smith podcast episodes (my own and as a guest), a Landscaping Your Life newsletter, ezine, pdfs (there’s even one on helping you see the wood for the trees), two books (Can't see the wood for the trees - landscaping your life to get back on track and Your Prescription for Wellbeing Journal) all sharing insight to help you when you’re overwhelmed, stuck or lost.
* The process, the insight, setback and angel cards used here are from the Transformation Game © Innerlinks - www.innerlinks.com. With Transformation Games available to buy from Amazon – see the Innerlinks site about where to get non English versions of the game.
