Passionate Pursuit of Purpose
Posted by Orrin Woodward on August 13, 2013
In the summer of 1981, just before my freshman year in high school, I stumbled across an essential life principle – make a game of any skill set you desire mastery in. Has the reader ever noticed how people will play games for hours on end, but seem to find it difficult to remain focused on work, practice, or studies for any length of time? I don’t know why God created people with such a passion for games, but I have learned how to utilize this passion to help a person develop his skills in his chosen field. Simply put, having fun is the only way to develop skills and enjoy the process. In fact, if a person can learn skills while he is having fun, then mastery is practically assured.
For instance, returning to the summer of 1981, my brother John and I developed our baseball skills by creating our own version of baseball using a tennis ball and a wooden bat. The batter lined up in front of our chain link fence (which played the role of the catcher) and the pitcher pitched into the fence and past the batter. This allowed us to play baseball with only two people and not run the risk of breaking windows or bones. I had never pitched competitively, but through playing our game for hours on end, I discovered my pitching velocity and control had skyrocketed. Indeed, my baseball coach asked me how I had learned my skills and I told him about tennis baseball. He chuckled at the creativity of two teenagers, but quickly leveraged my new skills in the pitching rotation.
Reflecting back, I now realize that I never would have developed the skills if we hadn’t developed made it a game. My brother and I would have quickly lost interest if we had just pitching the ball to one another. Plus, gathering full teams and the necessary equipment would have severely limited our playing time. However, when we developed an easy to play two-person game, with only a fence and bat in our backyard, we played until it was dark all summer long. By tallying scores and outs, we created a game that held our interest and made learning fun. This, in truth, is the key lesson. Discover a way to keep score in any area of expertise a person can turn a dull task into an invigorating competition. For when people keep score, the boring practices become exciting games with drama, strategy, and adjustments in victory and defeat.
Using the same principle, I have made practically my whole life a game where I focus on improving my leadership with the goal of helping others accomplish life victories. What a blessing to be living my purpose of leading people to truth through building communities that Have Fun, Make Money, and Make A Difference by providing life-changing information in the 8Fs. Laurie and my life has a scoreboard that accumulates points though the communities and customers of our life-changing information.
If anyone thinks life is boring then I know he hasn’t learned to turn life into a game. When life is a game, one wakes up everyday excited to advance the ball forward through actively growing and changing. Only in this way does life become an unfolding drama of enjoyable competition where one strives against his previous personal best. A life where one stands strong in his convictions in passionate pursuit of his purpose, dreams, and goals. This is a life lived in the zone; a life lived pressing towards the mark!
LIFE Leadership makes business a game. This make the journey fun while we make money and make a difference.
Sincerely,
32 Responses to “Passionate Pursuit of Purpose”
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Carrianne Hall said
Great blog Orrin! Love it and this business of Life which give us such great insight and outlook on how to play our game… To the fullest! God bless!
Keith Sieracki said
My siblings and I would do something similar throwing a tennis ball against a block wall with a strike zone painted on as to guarantee a “fair” game:). I also remember setting up a small basketball hoop inside the house with my best friend to play 1:1 with a Nerf ball and 5″ hoop during Michigan winters. The most fun was in my mind visualizing throwing the last strike in the world series or making the last second dunk in the NBA finals. Visualization + strategy + scoreboard = progress. Progress + competition = SUCCESS.
James Deming said
Thank you for the insight, I have a tendency to be to serious and driven thereby missing the enjoyment of the challenge. By creating a game it allows me to enjoy the process of improvement vs it feeling like a chore. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed your seminar this weekend and we were so glad to play this game with an amazing team. it was fun to be the orange in a sea of white and blue. what an amazing atmosphere where rivalry is used in a positive manor knowing we all can succed together. Thank you for all your sacrifice in playing the game. Life is a game changer.
Holger said
Great article!! So true and life-changing!!!
God Bless!!
Holger
JeanetteP said
Orrin
Thanks for your transparency and digging into the details in order to help make the lesson more applicable in the readers life. Making a game out of growth is not natural for my personality but I look forward to applying:))
God bless!
Kristine Militello said
Great perspective! And so true- make it a game. Look at how we will run more for a game instead of our goals and dreams. Interesting human phenomenon.
Can’t wait to share this with the boys as well.
Marc Militello said
This is such a great post! Make it a game and win. Thanks Orrin!!
Bill schmidt said
Such a true article Orrin, life is what u make it, and if you make life a game and have fun with, I think you will have a better life! Thank you for always giving a eye opening perspective:)
Thanks Orrin,
God Bless
Curtis Spolar said
Time flies while your having fun!
J & P Harteis said
We are watching this, first hand, with our grandkids! How creative they are when taken away from the tv & video games! Now, all we have to do is preserve this as they grow, & bring it back to those who have lost it over the years! Thanks for providing the Edge series, & of course, all the LIFE cd’s to set creativity in stone!
Dave Nelson said
I love this post. Playing some games and reading some books just makes me feel good. We have you to thank, Orrin for creating an environment where so many awesome books and materials have come from. Sincerely, Dave Nelson
Randy Robson said
What a great article!
Elaine Mallios said
It takes a little time with practice to get good enough to enjoy the game. That propels you to getting more passion. It’s a lot more fun this way and dreams and goals begin to reveal themselves.
Richard Kroll Jr. said
Orrin… thank you for creating a game where EVERYONE wins! LIFE
Steve Duba said
Thanks Orrin. We played driveway basketball all through the 70s with dad and little league baseball was awesome. No time for media poison to affect our thinking.We sure seemed so much more positive as kids back then. Getting back to that today would certainly help change the direction of this country. That’s how I see the Life organization affecting our culture. Changing the thinking,one person at a time.
Josh Dames said
Awesome post Orrin!!! Thx for always leading!!!!!
Jason Dames said
I need to beat my Brother to life coach lol!! We like to compete.. Just like I beat him in wiffle ball by throwing the big and nasty!!! Ha ha Thx Orrin for the post.. great reminder to have fun on the Journey..
Venkat Varada said
Orrin, I believe you just rolled out on the leaders call a million millionaires plan. Thank you for being steadfast in your calling and obedience to God!
Philip Brittain said
Orrin,
Thanks again for yet another great post. We have more fun when we make it a game and when we have more fun, we play harder and longer without realizing it! This is a great illustration of that concept.
Looking forward to playing the game at a higher level!
Thanks,
Philip
Tim Dwyer said
Orrin, you have given me a different way of looking at what we are doing and I haven’t reach the game sense of it just yet. However enjoying this incredible journey.
Greg Bie said
Fantastic message, Orrin. Can’t wait to find ways to apply the idea of making my life a “game”. God bless and keep you. 🙂
– G
Tennyson Heen said
Love the way you set the pace for all the PC to communicate effectively with everyone, the way you guys break things down and the stories and principles that go with them are so relatable. NorCal had fun having you out here this past weekend.
Kevin Hamm said
Orrin,
I have always competed in life. As a child, I would make a game of everything. Currently, as a climbing arborist, I daily attack each day with more work orders than are probably possible to complete, but then “what if?” When another climber is present, always much younger than me:), whether he knows it or not, I am counting trees. It is always a race, that’s just the way it is. Upon reading your article I realized that I have not, after some time in the business, really applied this to activities in the LIFE business…at least not to the degree that I have in the physical world of arboreal climbing. I think that’s about to change. Thanks for the spark.
Steve Meixner said
Orrin,That story brings back a lot of memories. I have quite a few brothers. We used to play a game I created called simply “Up The Hill” We were on this small hill, five of us, with a mini football and we would turn our backs and throw the football behind us in the tall grass, then say GO and quickly turn around and run to find the ball. The goal was to find the ball and get up the hill before being tackled. Great fun!! We also made up games while bailing Hay and storing it in the Barn. You are absolutely right about it being fun and then we did’nt even mind doing it! Thanks for pointing this out! Of course in the 70’s we played outside a lot more then kids today! That’s why I love reading your Blog, your always enlightening me to great ideas. Some things such as this I have done and did’nt even think about it! Thanks again and keep em coming,
Steve
Jnetjennifer said
The way you have poured this passion into the lives of others , along with a clear concise method of application to attain ones God given purpose is an extraordinary example . Not only do we embrace it , but the reality of our window in this lifetime brought into the light , causes me to consistently reflect on self improvement for the benefit of my calling and whomever I have opportunity to influence ….
As one of your developed leaders , the Guizzardo’s spoke over the weekend, “everyone wants the ball when the game is on the line!” ….. This has become my inner message ” Do YOU realize the game IS on the line? Get the ball and PLAY to WIN!!”
Florio Mazares said
I love having the ability to trick myself and my team in to success. Games are standard for having fun! Thank you for serving NorCal this last weekend!!!
CJ Calvert said
Great post Orrin! Our scoreboard is Power Player and numbers at functions, and playing the game of LIFE remains exhilarating!
Matt Foote said
Great article!! Thank you Orrin.
Chad Waters said
Hi Orrin,
I love how in Life everything is like the anology of the article! Its what creates the saying “have fun, make $, make a difference”! With the competion of a game feeling we create success on many platforms, sometimes being tricked to make the right choices because of the game!
Love it!
Suchat said
Love it !!!
Cheryl Foster said
Great article, I like your creativity. Thanks for helping recovering perfectionist who need to have more FUN.
SJ Barakony said
Having had the privilege of hearing the MFC & MFC Booster pack audios multiple times, this post reminds me of both Resolutions 6 & 9 — always good to have reminders in all forms of learning ( audio, online, et al ) for such foundational concepts! 😀