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When you’re running an online business, it can be really easy to get bogged down in the humdrum day-to-day-ness of it all. Luckily I’ve got a couple of little ‘games’ up my sleeve to help snap my clients out of it and inject a bit more fun back into their businesses!
Want to play??
The ‘Imagine If That Happened?!’ Game
If I’m working with a client who I can tell is thinking a bit small, or has got themselves in a bit of a rut, I always make them play this game.
The Rules: Write a list of 20-30 business things that would have you saying “OMG, could you imagine if that happened?!”. They have to be possible within the laws of physics, but beyond that – anything goes! It doesn’t matter if the thing exists yet or not.
Some examples for you:
- You win an international award as ‘Best [What You Do]’ (it doesn’t matter if these awards don’t exist yet!)
- You get a call from Oprah’s people and she wants to fly you first class to her house for a week to do what you do.
- Beyonce tweets about one of your blog posts that she loved.
- You’re invited to become one of the first Certified [What You Do]. (This totally happened for me!)
- You have a blog post go viral and a bajillion people join your list
- Someone approaches you to make a documentary about your life and your work (fully funded, of course)
- Someone you really respect and admire reaches out to [super awesome collaborative project] with you
- A journalist for a legit national newspaper/magazine approaches you for your expert opinion on something
- You’re invited to speak at [hugely important international event] (you’re paid handsomely, of course).
You get the idea. It’s very important that you go as big as you can with these. The bigger and the more extreme, the better.
Why You Should Play: This game is great because when we’re free-flow thinking super deep dreams are allowed to bubble up to the surface, and we can come up with some super fun/creative ideas.
If you’re a little more woo, this game also gives the Universe some ideas as to the sorts of experiences and opportunities you’d be open to receiving. I’m not saying the things on your list will start happening… but I’ve had many clients play this game and other really cool things have started to come their way!
The ‘I Wonder What Would Happen If…?’ Game
This one is my absolute favourite. I play this allllll the time. Most of my best ideas have come as a direct result of this type of wondering.
The Rules: Do some wondering about things you could do in your business, starting with “I wonder what would happen if…?”.
Some prompts for your wondering:
- What do you hate about your industry and what would the complete opposite look like?
- What would you like to invite more of into your life (time, connection, money, and how could you do that?
- What would be the most fun thing you could imagine doing in your business?
- What have been some of the best things you’ve done in your business/life so far and what common theme is there between them?
- What would you love to see someone else do (and report back with their results)?
- What would it look like if you did [your thing] in the way [different industry] does it?
Why You Should Play: It’s a fantastic way to get you thinking outside the box!
>> Click here to read my blog post all about this game!
The ‘How Good Can You Take It?’ Game
This one is a little different. This is for when things are going really well in your business.
The Rules: Think about the area of your business that’s going well right now, and consider how it could be even better. Imagine that ‘even better’ happening. How does that make you feel? You’re trying to find the limit for ‘how good you can take it’. Once you know the limit then you can start to work on expanding out that limit by getting used to the idea of it being even better than that aka ‘how good can you take it?’.
Why You Should Play: When things are going really well, most of us have the annoying tendency of self-sabotaging in some way. By playing this game and bringing an awareness to where our limit for ‘how good we can take it’ currently is, we can bring a conscious awareness to our self-sabotaging behaviours and start to reduce them, thus expanding our capacity to receive good things! Yay!
⚛ The ‘Parallel Universes’ Game ⚛
When you’re feeling at a bit of a crossroad in your business, or if you’re spending a lot of time worrying about opportunities missed or things you could have done, this is the game for you.
The Rules: For any path that you didn’t take, or opportunities you feel you missed, spend some time thinking about the ‘you’ in the parallel universe where you did go a different path, or seize an opportunity.
For me, there’s a parallel universe in which I’m a Facebook Ads person, one in which I’m head of maths in a school somewhere, one in which I’m an Olympic hammer thrower/shot putter, one in which I’m a huge Buffy the Vampire fan, etc.
Why You Should Play: You can’t be all those things in this lifetime, but embracing that there are other versions of you doing things excellently allows you to focus on and enjoy this life in this universe ?
? The ‘Leading Expert’ Game ?
If you’re feeling unsure of stepping up and owning your expertise, or you’re not even quite sure how/what to niche in, this game is for you.
The Rules: It’s a year from now, and someone has written a description of you (this could be for a podcast interview you did with them, you’re speaking at their event, you’re a guest expert in their program, etc). They write “[Your Name] is the leading expert in………”. And it feels really right. You wouldn’t have necessarily written it about yourself, but someone else saying it? Yep, you’ll take it. The question: what was it they said you’re the leading expert in?
Why You Should Play: The slight ‘space’ that this allows between you and your expertise (both with someone else imaginary saying it, and it being a year in the future), can really allow for clarity to come through in terms of what you want to be known/respected for. Once you’re clear on that, then you can shift your business and position yourself with that overall direction in mind.
I hope you’ve found these games fun (and helpful!). I would absolutely love if you shared in the comments anything interesting or surprising that came up for you as a result of playing along.
If you’ve enjoyed these, do check out my program Online Business Playground – 30 short videos of tips, prompts and ideas to add a whole lot more fun, flow and freedom to your online business! ?
