‘Try not to become a person of Success. But rather try to become a person of value.’ Albert Einstein
Here’s a simple and joyful game that I’m currently enjoying playing in a variety of ways; on my own; with my mum and with a friend… I’m sharing it with you so that you can play too, if it inspires you.
For 26 days, each morning as you wake, think of a positive adjective to describe YOU, beginning with A on the first day and moving through the alphabet on consecutive days until you reach Z.
It’s also an accumulation game so rather than only saying one adjective for the day try to remember each of the adjectives from the previous days too….
For example on day 5 you might repeat back to yourself:
I am an Adventurer
I am Bountiful
I am Creative
I am Daring
before then adding a new word for that day:
And I am Enthusiastic
You could also play this game with others – your siblings, parents, children, friends, colleagues.
This time you offer them an adjective which you think best describes THEM and they do the same in return. You could text it to them, speak it over the phone, share the word immediately before bedtime or when you wake, play as a whole class in school. You could do this in different ways for example one day at a time; 3 words each day; take it in turns if there are lots of you!
Challenge yourself to remember the words that the other person has offered to you, repeating them all to yourself each day (you could write them down until you begin to remember them!)
This is how I’ve been playing the game with my mum.
On the first morning I text 3 adjectives to describe my mum (she does likewise for me). It’s lovely to read the adjectives we’ve been sent. I speak them out loud to myself and again just before bedtime. I’m encouraging my mum to do likewise. The following day we both send the next 3 adjectives. I read the first 3 words followed by the new three…. by the end of 9 days I’m reading out 26 inspiring adjectives that she’s sent to me and vice versa. It’s been a wonderful way to share our love for and appreciation of each other.
This game can offer us many benefits including building a sense of our own value, appreciating and being grateful for others, strengthening our memory, increasing our language capacity and creating a sense of joy.
I wonder if you could think of enough adjectives to play this game for a whole year?
Let me know if you come up with other ways to play and share this game… how much fun can we create?