What Game Are You Playing?

A Framework for Redefining Success and Achieving What Matters Most

Non-Fiction - Self Help
184 Pages
Reviewed on 10/01/2019
Buy on Amazon

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Author Biography

Robin Moriarty, PhD, is a global business executive, professor, and writer who has lived on four continents and traveled to more than 60 countries. She has driven business initiatives that have had positive impacts on communities around the world, and she regularly shares her observations and advice on navigating complex work and life questions with students and professionals. She is fascinated by art, design, technology, human behavior, and basically whenever anyone challenges the status quo.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Deborah Lloyd for Readers' Favorite

Do you feel burdened by your life – the life that you were conditioned to live? Do you feel like your life is meeting the expectations of others, but not bringing fulfillment and joy to you? If so, this self-help book is the one for you! By using the concept of life being a game you play, you can decide what the game will be. The author’s personal goal is “Spending the Most Amount of Time in the Coolest Places,” and she is living it now. By developing a business career centered around traveling to different cultures and continents, Robin Moriarty, Ph.D. shares her method in What Game Are You Playing? A Framework for Redefining Success and Achieving What Matters Most.

A great amount of information is contained within this book, and it is imparted in captivating ways. There is a pragmatic and often humorous tone throughout her writing, engaging the reader from the first page to the last. The author shares her own poignant story. The sketches in each chapter are eye-catching and helpful. The worksheets illustrate how to achieve your goals. While every chapter leads the reader through the process of change, two of them are especially beneficial. Chapter 6, Designing a New Game, spells out a practical process. Chapter 10's What Are You Waiting For? is delightfully motivational. What Game Are You Playing? A Framework for Redefining Success and Achieving What Matters Most, written by Robin Moriarty, Ph.D., can be a life-changing guide for anyone who wants to find satisfaction and joy in life.

Lesley Jones

From the moment we enter this world, we are conditioned and trained to hold one view on what happiness and success mean. We are continuously influenced by our surroundings, peers, parents, and teachers to conform to one basic concept of success. The good news is, we can choose not to play society's game; we can break free and plot our own path in life. But where to begin? Sometimes what is expected of us feels uncomfortable, it does not bring us happiness or a feeling of fulfillment. Throughout What Game Are You Playing? by Robin Moriarty, Ph.D., you will discover personal examples, exercises, and techniques that will help you determine what matters to you, what objectives you truly want out of life. You will learn why it has felt so difficult to change the course of your life. This guide gives you the tools to live a life full of experiences that you enjoy. Start designing a life with outcomes that matter to you; play your own unique game and see your life transform.

To really get the most out of this amazing guide takes a great deal of soul searching and honesty. I literally felt the weight of others' expectations lift from my shoulders. There are so many eye-opening discoveries throughout this book. I loved the explanation about how the brain works to keep you safe and how this could be the key to holding you back from making changes in your life. The exercises are simple to work through but provide you with very powerful insights into how you view yourself and the goals you wish to achieve. This book gives you permission to live the life that you want. This book would make the perfect gift to every child to inspire them to follow their own dreams and ambitions. I would love to see this superb book in school libraries. I highly recommend everyone reads What Game Are You Playing? if they feel that their life is not giving them a sense of achievement. Robin Moriarty's fantastic insights have confirmed what I always believed to be true, but now I have a concrete plan on how to make my 'game' a reality.

Vernita Naylor

When you play a board or video game, either alone or with others, what comes to mind? Rules? Competition? Win or Lose? Start or Finish? Well, regardless of your initial thoughts, the objective is what you're going to accomplish, get out of it or what you want to happen. In What Game Are You Playing? A Framework for Redefining Success and Achieving What Matters Most by Robin Moriarty, Ph.D., you will be taken through ten chapters, experience fun artistic drawings and perform various exercises to help liberate your mind in understanding the game that you're actually playing, why you're playing it and how to create a paradigm shift of change. "...it’s important to play your own game—not the game that other people are playing or the game that they want you to play, but the game that you want to play," says Robin. In life, we play the games of others, either by what we're taught or in comparison to others.

I enjoyed this book because it's thought-provoking, intriguing and insightful. As you read this book, you can see the passion that Robin displays in the desire to support others in being who they're meant to be. As she states, it is what we place on ourselves that keeps us bogged down and not living to our fullest. The chapter Spending the Most Amount of Time in the Coolest Places resonated with me because it's those peak, special moments that I encounter and create for myself that allow me to relax and create my own game. I've learned early in life that everyone operates by different rules of engagement; for some it's money, others prestige but for me, it's quality of life. It's like playing chess: the objective is to be strategic in protecting the queen. To seal the deal of the game, let's hear what Gail Evans, CNN Executive Leader and author, has to say: "Whether the game is croquet, Monopoly, field hockey, or football, you have to understand the directions first. So why play the game of business any differently?" So ask yourself, what game am I playing - mine or others?

Edith Wairimu

What Game Are You Playing? A Framework for Redefining Success and Achieving What Matters Most by Robin Moriarty, Ph.D. helps in rethinking what success actually is based on the take of each specific individual. As we grow up and live in our current society, we already have preconceived notions of what comprises success. According to the author, few of us really assess these ideologies or compare them to our personal definition of success. In the book, the author shares her opinion of what success is and what lifestyle works for her and she urges the reader to define what accomplishment means to them. Most importantly, the work moves on to include changes that can be made to fulfill our own view of achievement and each way is tailored with the end goal in mind, which is to be successful based on your own terms.

What Game Are You Playing? is written in a conversational tone. The work accepts society’s definition of success as long as it aligns with an individual’s true goals. Robin Moriarty seeks to inspire thought and change on the topic of success based on an individual’s desires. The content is well organized with side notes, well-labeled subtopics, points to remember that appear at the end of the chapters, and timely questions that clarify the information and make the work engaging. The work remains candid, acknowledging the challenges of following one’s goals but also shows the benefits of living life according to one’s own terms. What Game Are You Playing? is a sincere approach to the topic of success, fitted to meet individual perceptions. It is thought-provoking and enlightening in many ways.

K.C. Finn

What Game Are You Playing? is a work of nonfiction in the genre of self-help guidance, penned by author Robin Moriarty Ph.D. Subtitled as ‘A Framework for Redefining Success and Achieving What Matters Most’, this concise guidebook takes readers through the author’s central philosophy on viewing life as a game, and making choices to achieve success on one’s own terms. The book encourages readers to define their perceptions of success and then perhaps redefine them in light of the new knowledge provided. It contains practical exercises in game design formats to put philosophy into action and outline steps which can be taken for readers to change their lives for the better.

Author Robin Moriarty, Ph.D. has a precise and effective narrative format which is sure to inspire those seeking guidance but also has the comforting confidence of a teacher giving instruction to pupils. The examples and exercises included in the volume really help to illustrate effective goal setting and to aid readers in assessing their situation and the various ‘games’ in which they may be pawns rather than players at the moment. The organization of the volume makes it easy to find sections to reference and readdress, and the overall flow of the project moves from general concepts and understanding into specific individualized planning, all with a sense of progression and growing confidence throughout. Overall, What Game Are You Playing? will certainly be a worthwhile read for anyone experiencing a sense of helplessness and unfulfillment, and/or a lack of purpose in their current lives.