What's Your Winning Condition?

Whether you're an entrepreneur, business owner or CEO, we all share many common traits as human beings. From the frailties of our shell to emotional tendencies, we are more connected that we think.

For instance, we have each mentally outlined our own private set of winning conditions and have labeled it "success". This is all based on our dreams, desires and experiences thus far in life. For some this set of winning conditions consists of sitting in the porch rocking chair, sucking on a Popsicle and watching the world go by. For others it's to be the mover and shaker who's either making a difference or making a stink, and still others are content to be a responsible member of the masses that turn societal wheels.

Regardless of the gauge by which our winning condition is measured, we're all heading toward our vision whether we know it or not. That set of conditions we mentally chose as a young person guides our choices, actions and responses and has given us the life we know today.

How can we teach our children to form a better set of conditions for the purpose of having a great life? This becomes difficult as they reach the teen years and think they know it all. After we figure out all of that, how do we show adults how to change their present gauge and use their life experience to adjust their set of conditions to bring about a new result?

My answer is to bring back the old Parker Brothers game of Careers. It's a fun teaching tool for the process of choosing the life we want. It's a game in which each player gets to set their own winning conditions. Yes, the players actually decide on the set of circumstances that once achieved, constitutes winning the game for them by choosing to pursue fame, money, happiness, or a combination of all three.

The goal is to earn a total of 60 points from all three categories. For example, one may have earned 60 Happiness points, 0 Fame and 0 Money, or 20 points of each or any other combination. Players choose from a number of different "occupation paths" with different occupations being be best suited toward different strategies. The path to Hollywood is good for collecting fame points, while Going to Sea is good for collecting happiness points. In the end it's the player (or team of players) that gets to their predetermined goal first who wins and achieves everything they ever wanted in life.

This is a great game and its principles are invaluable. Here lies a clear outline of how to plan the life you want. Determine how many "points" you want in each category of fame, money, happiness, and we can even add health to the mix, and then choose the appropriate path to get what you want. Simple! Even if you're not the first to collect 60 points, you can evaluate how close you were to achieving your dreams.

If every kid in America had possession of, and played this game, they would have a blueprint to achieving their dreams as well as the example of playing through and seeing the result. Experiencing that personal win can be amazing. Although many lack the confidence to go for their dreams, if they can achieve them while playing a game, it can be enough to persuade them toward achieving them in real life.