Playing To Win
posted in Success, Goal Setting, Stay On Course, Motivation, True Stories, Take Massive Action, Ways To Enjoy, Focus |Hey Folks,
Todays post is very interesting. It involves practical goal setting, application of plans/strategies and the mindset to be successful, all applied in a simple game. So sit back, relax and read on.
Yesterday was family day and our family dropped by one of our favorite weekend entertainment center, Downtown East. After a morning of fun and a sumptuous lunch of Sushi, we went to the arcade.
Here’s What Happened
At the arcade, we saw this contraption where you get to scoop some sweets to fill out a moving table. Then the sweets will get push off the moving table and fall into a collecting tray. Whatever in the tray is your prize. Piece of cake, right?
But would you pay a dollar to grab a couple of sweets you probably could have bought at a convenience stall for much less? Probably Not!
But from what I observed, that’s what most people do. Right there before my eyes. They pop a few coins (by the way, it was S$1 per game), scoop a few sweets, deposit them on the table and grab a few sweets and they stop.
Most of them stare at the Jackpot prize (The little stuff toy at the top of the machine) and wonder if anyone could get it!
We played this once, spent S$10 for a bag of sweets so I had some idea how it works. This time round, I set a goal. I wanted to get that Jackpot
prize for my little girl. So this is how I plan it.
I started off with a goal to win the Jackpot prize.
To win the Jackpot prize, I need a plan to fill up the jackpot counter (Picture to the left) by hitting the checker (Bottom Picture, the little RED tab extending out from the table is the checker) with sweets.
I also plan to scoop the larger sweets, thinking that since they are big, they could probably move more sweets down the table. Now I have a goal and a plan, time to take some action.
I changed S$10 worth of coins which translated to 12 scoops of the sweets. Actually, I am not sure how many tries it would take to win the jackpot, so I test and measure.
First couple of tries was a mixed of success and disaster.
Disaster - Attempting to scoop a large amount of larger sweets, usually end up with an empty scoop. I realized that the scoop was a flexible plastic, it flexed and bend under load and bounces its load of sweet all over the place.
Success - Attempting to scoop just 2-3 packets of larger sweets went well and it dropped loads of sweets into the collecting tray. So now, I changed my tactics and aim for smaller load.
Be Focus
Remember that we mentioned that to win the Jackpot prize, you need to focus on hitting the checker and move the counter.
That was what we focused on all the way. It does not matter how many sweets was dropped, if it didn’t hit the checker, it didn’t count towards our goal.
I noticed that many players from the other stations focus on trying to drop the Maximum number of sweets. I am not sure if getting the most sweet was their aim or not but if their goal was the Jackpot, then their action and goal is not in alignment.
Never Give Up
After the initial 12 tries, we were closer to the Jackpot but not close enough. So do we give up or do we push on? Of course, we pushed on! Giving up is as good as wasting all the effort that you have put in so far, all the experience you gain also goes down the drain.
The time, effort and money I estimated at the beginning is just an approximation, now that I had a baseline, I could determine how much more effort the whole project would take. I estimated another S$10 would do it. So we pushed on, focus and just did it.
At the end, it took exactly 2 more try then I had expected but we did win the Jackpot prize. Check out the prize, blue doggy soft toy and the HUGE bag of sweets! And of course, a very happy little girl! 
Inspirations
The most amazing thing wasn’t our winning the Jackpot. What was amazing was what happens because we won. Our little game attracted a crowd around us and the cheer went up after we hit the Jackpot. More amazingly, all the other stations were filled with players who is now inspired to be the next Jackpot winner!
Our energy built up while charging towards our goal was transfer to the audience around us and inspired them to take action. That was amazing and we are talking of a simple game here. Think of what you could inspire if you achieve that goal in your life or at work?
Here’s one last picture of Stella and yours truly. Enjoy your weekend.
Cheers,
James
Afterword: What I have just shown is some very basic stuffs used in goal setting and it can be applied to everyday task as simple as playing a game. If you want a system that can help you with goal setting, check out The Ladder Of Dreams on the left side bar.
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