For Peter, the tough thing was allowing himself to play the game.
He was preparing well, but he wanted to push the date for his university admissions test (it's an American thing, don't think too hard about it!) as far into the future as possible.
In fact, he didn’t even want to TALK about a date for the test.
He felt tremendous pressure: about the test, about applying to university, and about his life generally.
He seemed terrified of disappointing the people in his life.
So it was extremely helpful for him to define victory in a new way: it would be a victory just to play.
Not even to play well, just to play. With the intense burden of his future weighing on him, Peter would win by simply taking a single step forward.
So he did. He set a date and took his test.
He was extremely nervous about it. But he took it.
He did not do as well as he hoped. But he began to see the victory in taking his first step.
And what would be his next victory? Trying again.So he did—and he improved!
Peter is now well into the cycle of test-taking and applying to universities, and he appears much more at ease than in the beginning.
Taking that first small step enabled him to take the next, and then the next.
The lesson? BE WILLING TO PLAY BADLY AT FIRST. Get into the game.
