#141-Play Life Like Jenga
John (Intro): I have been on a quest to learn everything I can about leadership obsessed with what makes the best leaders so good. After running companies small and large for the last 20 years, today I speak on stages all across the world to audiences who are interested in that same question. My name is John Laurito and I’m your host. I invite you to join me on this journey as we explore this topic: What makes the best leaders so good? Welcome to Tomorrow’s Leader.
John: All right, welcome to today’s episode of Tomorrow’s Leader, where we dive deep on all things leader-related, related to leading yourself and leading others. I’m John Laurito, your host on this beautiful Friday afternoon. I hope you are about to enjoy a great weekend, although I’m not sure when you’re listening to this. So might be Monday, in which case I hope you have a great week. But I wanted to share just a concept with you. I was talking to somebody about this recently and it brought just this idea kind of in mind of how people tend to play life.
John: And I’ve seen so many people recently, especially over the last year and a half, with all this craziness that seemed to be just stuck, whether it’s stuck in their career, whether it’s stuck in a relationship, whether it’s stuck in life, and they just can’t seem to get themselves to make a change or just make any kind of adjustment to the path that they’re on. So they feel like they’re continuing down this path, that they don’t either have a choice or they don’t have the willingness to make a decision. I’ve always been a huge believer and a friend of mine shared a quote with me, which absolutely captures this perfectly.
John: You are always one decision away from changing your life, literally, because it’s not just that one decision that you make, but it’s the ripple effect of having made that decision. And most people, unfortunately, are afraid to make a decision because they don’t know what the consequences are going to be. They’re afraid to make a mistake and they don’t know what that ripple effect is actually going to look like. But the people that understand that when you make a decision, what it does is change your vantage point. You take a step forward and you now have a whole bunch of different things that you’re seeing that you didn’t necessarily see before.
John: So I kind of related to the way you play different games. And I think most people play the game of life, not the game of life, but they play life the way that they would play hide and seek where the object of the game is just to not get noticed, not get found. They find a spot and they stay in that spot. And that spot is way somewhere hidden that nobody can see. And they’re just staying quiet. They’re staying still. And they’re praying that nobody comes and finds them and they’re just waiting and not doing anything other than just waiting. And the way you win that game, I guess you win the game as if nobody finds you and that’s how you win. It’s a fun game. It’s a great game. We’ve all played it zillions of times, but it’s kind of a weird premise, right?
John: You win by just nobody finding you. So that’s not very motivating. Right. To me. I think about the game of life. This life that we’re living is
to do stuff, to get out there, to try new things, to carve a new path and create a new life for yourself and a new chapter of life and do the things that make you happy. And I look at it and think, OK, well, I would say it’s kind of like playing the game of Jenga, which the way I think about how I play Jenga and for those of you who’ve played it, those bricks, you know, the blocks you pile up to see how you can get the tower without knocking it down. Well, if you’re smart about it, you don’t just go pulling out bricks randomly or block because you don’t know if that block is going to have a lot of weight on it and it’s going to topple over the tower.
John: But you do what you kind of poke at it and figure out which of these blocks is a little bit looser than the others. And you try to find the one that’s actually the loosest and some of them will just move really easily, in which case, you know, you’ve got really a low amount of risk. It’s a move that will move you forward, but it has a low amount of risk. And then you put that block on the top and then the next person goes, well, if you think about it, I mean, a lot of people are just stuck. They don’t know which block to move, so to speak, in their life. They don’t know what step to take and so they don’t do anything in.
John: My advice would be, if you play life the way you play Jenga, find the block. That’s the easiest one to move. You don’t have to move two or three or four or five. You don’t have to move the hardest one or the biggest one. Pick the one. That’s the easiest one to move. Take one step and take the step that has the least amount of risk and ultimately still moving you forward. If that’s the way you’ve got to do it, then do that. Take the smallest step you have to take and move forward. That’s it. It’s just about taking a step forward for sustained stationery and staying hidden and trying to not get found, so to speak.
John: So I hope that analogy makes sense. You know, every so often I have conversations with people and it brings an idea or perspective or in this case, an analogy. And I see too many people living their life in a way that ultimately is not making them happy and ultimately not making other people happy. So guess what? Time to make a change. You gotta do it. You got to do something right. So play Jenga, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
John: Hope you’ve enjoyed this. Hope this got the wheels turning again. If you’re listening to this on a Friday about to enjoy a great weekend, do it. If it’s a Sunday, make the most of it. If it’s a Monday, I hope you’re doing something that you love. And a Monday feels like a Friday because God knows I am. So have a great one. Thanks for listening. Like share, subscribe,
give me some comments and feedback, five star reviews, all that kind of good stuff. And I’ll see you next time. Thanks.
John (Closing): Thanks for joining us on today’s episode of Tomorrow’s Leader. For suggestions, or inquiries, about having me at your next event, or personal coaching, reach me at john@lauritogroup.com Once again, that’s john@lauritogroup.com. Thanks! Lead on!
