3 Steps to Win the Game of Life

Sometimes the “incompletes” in our lives can add up and we start to feel overwhelmed, lost and confused.

There are big incompletes—our long-held dreams, our unpursued passions—and then there are the little incompletes—the stuff that niggles at us every day, the seemingly never-ending list of “to-do’s.”

You don’t need many of these incompletes before everywhere you look (even into the future) you see things you haven’t done instead of the things you have done.

This can seriously undermine your sense of purpose and overall happiness. It will start to feel like any really big dream you have is simply impossible to achieve.

As it happens, a basic tenet of the Law of Attraction is that where your attention goes GROWS. So it follows that your wretched to-do list will only get bigger if that’s where all of your focus is.

So what can you do instead?

Start by putting at least a little bit of attention toward the things you know you want. You can do this by drawing up a “Play List” (as opposed to a “Daily To-Do List”) of everything you would like to be, do, and have.

Really have fun with this. Dream big. Then watch your Play List grow – and see how much better you feel!

Once you’ve got a really long, juicy Play List, take the next step: every week make a commitment to take inspired action that leads to achieving your dreams, even if the first action toward, say, “Bask in a welcoming home” is just to “clean and organize closets.”

Even if it’s just “clean and organize hall closet.” Even if it’s just “clean hall closet.” Even if it’s just “put away toys, clothes and other items that are blocking access to the hall closet.”

(If “a welcoming home” didn’t make your Play List of things you’d like to have, you might want to think again. Time and time again I’ve noticed that decluttering creates space for your bigger dreams to show up.)

Note that you’ll want to make your inspired action items small. In fact, you might want to tailor them to take advantage of a “game” I play that has served me well over the years.

I have a lot of fun with what I call a “fifteen-minute sprint.”

If a project seems overwhelming in its magnitude, I find working on it much easier if I commit fifteen minutes—and no more than fifteen minutes—to some action that moves that project forward.

So dream a desire, figure out some part of it you can take care of in 15 minutes, set a timer, and be in a race with the clock!

You’ll be surprised by how much you accomplish in that time. And you’ll be surprised by how fast the time went. You may just be surprised by how much FUN you have in the process!

Even if you feel like you could do more, don’t. You want to avoid burnout. If you are really inspired, take a break, have a drink of water, and then return for another 15 minute round, but after that, get out while the getting’s good.

If you doubt the power of the 15-minute sprint, listen to this story: In February of 2014, I had a dream of writing a book based on a concept that I’ve used with my son, Griffin, since he was a baby—a concept I call “the Shadow Self.”

This idea has worked wonders with Griffin, and then when I heard from an astonished and grateful mom that Griffin had defused a conflict between his best friend and his best friend’s little sister by explaining the concept I had taught him, I realized I had to share it on a bigger scale, and writing a book about it seemed like the best way.

But the problem was that I didn’t have any time to actually write the book. After all, I was a busy mom running my own business, and I already had way too many to-do’s in my day.

Then I remembered the Play List and the 15-minute sprint. Now that I had “Shadow Self Book” on my Play List it wasn’t difficult to find 15 minutes. I simply woke up 15 minutes earlier every morning. I wrote for 15 minutes, no more, no less.

Nine months later I had enough of No More Crying and Complaining: How to Transform Your Negative Thoughts, Improve All Your Relationships, and Enjoy More Happiness written (almost a whole manuscript and a fully completed book proposal) that I was able query agents at the end of November 2014 – and was signed by a prestigious literary agent 2 weeks later.

Based on the advice of my agent, I’m in the process of building a bigger platform in order to attract a BIG publishing deal – and again it’s on my Play List and I’m using 15 minutes a day to do it. My platform IS getting bigger every day, and we hope to approach some very big-name publishers in the next couple of months.

So don’t you think I’m glad that I refused to believe that I didn’t have time to write my book and acquire an agent and that I CREATED the time instead?

Yes, I am.

We all have big dreams we want to accomplish and projects that are overwhelming in their magnitude, like my dream of writing and publishing a book. But we can manage even these big dreams if we approach them one fifteen-minute sprint at a time.

If you’re like me, you’ve already gotten out your kitchen timer and set it to 15 minutes. You’re raring to go. (And if that isn’t you, get that timer out—or use the one on your phone, and try to find fifteen minutes today to start assembling your Play List.)

But before you set the timer or press the start button on your phone, let me give you the last essential component of the 15-minute sprint. Ready? Here goes:

These sprints are most effective when you take a moment to celebrate your accomplishments too.

Often we finish one task and rush on to the next without acknowledging that what we just did was important and meaningful.

So next time you’re done with a fifteen-minute sprint, find a way to celebrate, even if you only cheer, “Woo HOO!” and do a quick fist pump, or put water in a pretty wine glass and drink it on your porch.

Of course, celebrating your accomplishments is a lot of fun, but it’s also scientifically proven to make future tasks and projects seem much easier—and (you guessed it) more pleasurable—and that, my friends, means you’ll keep doing them!

So—to recap the 3 Steps to Win the Game of Life: Step 1: Dream. Step 2: Sprint. Step 3: Celebrate.

In no time at all, you, too, will have accomplished what you once thought impossible and be enjoying the life of your dreams.