Hello and Welcome!

You’re probably wondering, what’s this Playing Full Out thing all about?

A lot of people describe life (or parts of it) as The Game. There are games all around us: Power games the bigwigs at your work are playing, playing the corporate ladder game, the games the person you’re dating is playing.

The problem is, most of the time when we talk about playing games, it’s not usually all that fun.

We’ve given playing games a bit of a bad rap.

When many of us were kids, we played games all the time. Glorious games. Games about greatness. Games about excitement, action and intrigue. We were good guys and bad guys and sometimes inanimate objects. Games were usually all about having great fun with our friends.

Usually when we played games, we played hard. We played to win. It was okay if we didn’t - no harm, no foul. We jumped right back into it and played that much harder.

Something changed as most of us grew up. All of a sudden games were bad. They were childish and immature. So we gave up our love of games to step into the “real world” full of repercussions, of responsibility, of seriousness. There was suddenly no time for playing games any more. The real world beckoned.

So we became cautious. We went from falling off of bicycles and jumping off the garage to playing it safe, never taking any risks. Suddenly security was the most important thing.

Then we shifted into believing how life was this terrible, dreadful thing that you had to watch out for, otherwise you’d get screwed. We convinced ourselves that by knowing how terrible life is, we could protect ourselves.

I don’t know about you, but I grew up believing the Boogeyman was hiding in the dark places in my house like closets, under beds, and so on.

Of course, it was just my friends and family teasing and joking, but the point is that I believed them at one point.

I eventually realized that I what I was being afraid of was just a made up figment of my imagination, an illusion of danger that was just waiting to get me when I wasn’t looking. It was something I believed just because that was what I heard.

How many people live their lives thinking along the same lines? I’m not necessarily saying that some people still believe in the boogeyman (although who else could that notorious “they” that’s always out to get you be?) but they buy into all that talk about life waiting to screw you over when you’re not looking - or worse, even when you see it coming.

I fully believe that Life is a game. It’s a fun game meant to be enjoyed, not endured. The whole reason for our existence in this realm or reality is to enjoy our experiences.

So by all means I’m going to Play Full Out. It’s okay if I fall and scrape my knee or bruise an elbow or two. I’ll pass on the Merthiolate. I never liked the stuff anyway, except the smell - but that’s a different topic.

I’ve decided that I’m going to play My Game the best way I know how. I love my life, from being the king of the hill to the first guy hit with the dodgeball and back again.

So the question is: Are YOU ready to play YOUR game full out?

What do you desire to play now?