Play Your Bigger Game: 9 Minutes to Learn, a Lifetime to Live

by Rick Tamlyn

More than just a book, Play Your Bigger Game provides a philosophy and methodology that you can learn in just nine minutes, and it will serve you for the rest of your life. Self-impowerment expert Rick Tamlyn believes that life is all made up, so why not make it a game of your own design - one that excites you, challenges you, and allows you to fully express your talents and creativity?

When you play your bigger game, you create a life that is dynamic, engaging, and wildly inspiring. This book is your antidote to inertia - you will never feel "stuck" again. Each and every day, it will inspire and motivate you to keep stretching, achieving, and thriving above and beyond any boundaries or limitations that might have held you back in the past. Play Your Bigger Game offers pathways, tools, and inspiring stories to feed the hunger in your soul, light the fires of your imagination, and build a fulfilling life and a lasting legacy.

If you long to...
...then you should join thousands of others around the world and play your bigger game!

Genres: Leadership

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2013

Reviews

[Montoyia McGowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Manifestation and positive thinking with great examples of how to think in abundance

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but could have been a TED Talk.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rick Tamlyn has recently released his book, Play Your Bigger Game published by Hay House.

I'm reviewing it specifically with the BookNook community, as it is one of the newest releases. Know that the material it covers is the author's documentation of a popular workshop he and others provide as training at corporations, agencies, institutions and the like. With that in mind, I will honesty comment that this book may be more engaging as an audio book. I can hear the author's enthusiasm in his sharing. The structure of the book isn't faulty, I think I agree with the author's own early assessment that it is best to read the book through once fully and go back to read chapters as one develops their own "Bigger Game."

A collection of twelve chapters, plus many pages of endorsements and a lengthy afterword are definitely suited to people looking for motivation, selecting chapters to focus on as one begins a Bigger Game. Rick differentiates a Bigger Game from a life purpose. You're likely to create a good work, or many if you already know your purpose. So, I think, "the game" prepares you to define a meaningful path in which your purpose most often intersects.

I engaged as soon as he brought forth the most person-centered ideas some of his students developed. I was led to look up further information on the organizations one woman developed to better serve foster children [one, generationsofhope.org]. Although every story of every student he has impacted is likely very important to him, I sometimes found the process difficult to follow when punctuated continuously with success stories.

The book makes a big promise in its own tag line, "Nine minutes to learn, a lifetime to live." I can tell you it took me more than nine minutes to figure out -- but I was delighted to figure out on my own that the claim was "nine minutes" due to the model having 9 boxes (like a tic-tac-toe board). It asks you to step out of your comfort zone, tells you it's important to invest in yourself and your own ideas, good stuff ultimately.

This book would make an inspired gift if you are witness to a friend already on the cusp of stepping out in a big way with some creative idea. That empty-nester sister-in-law, or the still-at-home recent college grad, musician friend, or anyone looking to change careers, that type. When asked, I'm guilty of asking for gifts I will not budget for and invest in on my own. Is that a bad thing? In that small way, I still see myself as a child in accepting gifts. But, this year, I did make the step of asking for what I wanted, instead of simply deeming myself unworthy. You could be the compassionate person who sees a need in someone where this book's advice could be their nudge to that first step.

I acknowledge that I received this book free of charge from Hay House in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

You can purchase a copy of this October 2013 release, Play Your Bigger Game on the Hay House website and other retail sites.

[Linz Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun exploration about the various aspects of how to play a bigger game connected to your passions and purpose. I enjoyed how you need to explore where you are at now and what step you need to take next to further the action. Quick read with strong examples 3.5/5 ⭐️

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

FTC Disclosure: I acknowledge that I received this book free from Hay House Publishing to review. The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment.

In Play Your Bigger Game, Rick Tamlyn teaches a new way to ferret out and live a greater life purpose. I loved the concepts he teaches, in examining each square of the Bigger Game. He often suggests relaxing and leaning into your bigger game. It is important not to worry about it or put a deadline on your discovery of your bigger game and compelling purpose. It will come when the time is right. Many self-help books want you to find your purpose and live your dreams, but I have found many of them don't have much helpful advice on how to do that. This book, by moving you from square to square, as you play the game, shows you how to find your way to what is most important to you, where your comfort zones are, and how to find allies to help with your compelling purpose. Overall, I liked the book a lot and found it very helpful.

If there were anything I could change about the book, it would be to add more examples of people who have played the bigger game who are more real to the average person than Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, and heads of corporations. I loved that Rick started out talking about the bigger game he learned to play as a teenager. I find it hard to relate to the scale of the game played by billionaires. I love hearing how a firefigher played the game, or a worker in a corporation changed things for the better.

Being in the flow is part of the bigger game philosophy, so you know that your bigger game is going to be what you love doing. That is always the biggest game of all.

[Andy Nieradko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Empowering. Rick Tamlyn's Play Your Bigger Game is a 5 star read. You don't have to be one of those highly motivated types with huge dreams and goals to benefit from this book. There's a lot of good information here. I love the idea that our lives are "all made up." We're all in the process of creating our life moment by moment, so the Bigger Game concept is designed to help aid in focusing and creating what we want our life to look like. The game board is presented as a tic tac toe grid, with nine squares containing concepts such as "Hunger", "Compelling Purpose", "Assess"... Each game square is explored in its own chapter. What I like about the game board is that it's open ended. It's a guide, but one that puts all the decision making into the user's hands. I also like that it's set up for positive thought and action rather than a win/lose scenario. The author does a good job of explaining the Bigger Game, while offering many inspiring examples of folks who have successfully used these ideas to their advantage. As a small business owner, I found several concepts, in Playing Your Bigger Game, that I can put into practice immediately. I was not financially compensated for this post. I received the book from Hay House for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.

[Kate Arms · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most inspirational books based on coaching, there is too much self-promotion in this book. And the game aspect of the material is almost completely absent.

However, the model provides an accessible way of thinking about how to live in the midst of the perennial question - how do I create a life that feels alive and meaningful.

The Bigger Game material originated as a workshop form and the book conveys and impression that the workshops provide an embodied engagement with the material. I have no doubt people get good value from the author's workshops.

I read the book to get a sense of the author because I am taking a different program with him in the fall through the Coaches Training Institute and the book definitely gave me a sense that he will be good to work with. So as a marketing book for a coach, it was effective.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great reminder to think bigger and expand our beliefs about what we can achieve. We're capable of so much when we have a "compelling purpose", which Rick Tamlyn brings up often in the book. He describes it as a vision that is bigger than just ourselves. It's related to how we can contribute to a greater cause.

When we find a compelling purpose, we can accomplish a lot because we're not worried about the "how" even if we don't quite now how we're going to do it - we naturally become resourceful and creative because we are committed to this cause that goes beyond just us. Whereas we might give up if it was only for us, when we're doing things that are part of a larger picture with far reaching impact, it happens more naturally that we stick with it.

[GONZA · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another self-help book based on coaching. Once you have identified your dream, your potential, your capacity to exploit, why wait? Everything has already been written by others and read by me, and this manual does not add anything new.

Un altro libro di autoaiuto basato sul coaching. Una volta che hai individuato il tuo grande sogno, il tuo potenziale, la tua capacitá da sfruttare, perché aspettare? Il tutto é giá stato scritto da altri e letto dalla sottoscritta e questo manuale non aggiunge niente di nuovo.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND HAY HOUSE FOR THE PREVIEW!