ENABLING PEOPLE TO PLAY TO WIN

“I have a score; I am not my score; I’m more than my score, and most important— I need my score!”

The following statement will probably seem obvious to you. It sounded obvious to me when I first read it, but then something strange happened when I said it out-loud recently. I said it aloud to some people as I was explaining a point that an author had made. In saying it aloud it sounded to me like a lost truth, one which I once knew, had forgotten, and now recovered. Here it is.

When people play tennis or basketball or football or any sports or other games, chess, video- games, watch what happens when they begin to keep score. They come alive! They get focused and purposeful! What this means is incredible: People play differently when they are keeping score! If you watch a bunch of kids playing a game, just notice how things significantly change the very minute score-keeping begins. And even more revealing than that is the change when they are keeping score.