From Finite to Infinite Games, the Lessons Learned by Embracing Change
How baseball can challenge your thinking
As a boy, I recall spending time at my grandparent’s house. They were part of the Greatest Generation, those born before the 1930s who came of age during World War II.
My grandfather was a Marine and fought in the Pacific campaign. While he was overseas, my grandmother worked on the military base. She was a “delivery person.”
She would tell me, “I delivered the base commander from his office to the mess hall.” or “I delivered him from his house to the officer’s club.” She got the job because the commander liked women drivers and she was the only one that knew how to drive a manual transmission.
They both had incredible stories from that era, and I loved listening to them tell tales. They were both patriots in the truest sense of the word. Sacrificing to build a better life for themselves and others. Instilling in me to always approach a problem from both sides, see the issues from another perspective, and decide based on facts and truth.
Appreciate people not teams
Summers were my favorite times because of my grandfather’s love for professional baseball. He would listen to games on the radio, like when he was growing up.
I would sit out with him, playing while he listened. He was never one to get overly excited about a game, even when our team hit the game-winning home run.
He had such an appreciation for the players, but not just the ones on the home team. He admired anyone that played the game at the highest level. It wasn’t uncommon for him to cheer for the opposing side because he respected their ability.
When we attended games in person, he would spend as much time explaining the opposing players’ strengths and weaknesses as he would the home team. He would keep score for each game and take notes as the game progressed. He had a grasp of strategy and enjoyed the game equally, no matter if our team won or not.
When our team would have an exceedingly terrible year, it never seemed to phase him. He could always root for skilled players on other teams.
As a kid, I wanted nothing more than to please my grandfather, but not picking a side to cheer for was tough. After all, someone had to win the game. I would often ask, did we win? His answer was always the same. Both teams gave it their best, and that’s what matters.
My grandfather reasoned, even though there would be a “champion” crowned in the fall of each year. That championship would soon be in the past, and all that would be left is next year’s team.
With old players and some new, the game is continually moving forward. The only constant is the people playing the game. He chose to focus on the people and not where they played.
Finite vs Infinite games
We tend to play these games, like baseball, with a finite mindset that there are beginnings and endings with a winner announced and cheered for. We build around these finite short term choices, and it infects our thinking that all of life is like this.
Simon Sinek calls the opposite of this, an Infinite game. It’s the ability to realize that life isn’t a win-or-lose proposition. You can’t win at life. You continue to play day after day. As long as you are alive, there isn’t a magic point in the future where you get to stop playing and coast till the end.
Playing an infinite game
It starts by studying how you think and flipping the text around to question your thinking.
- Challenges — many people see challenges as an obstacle in our way and don’t see it as an opportunity to expand outside of our comfort zone. Take the challenge and run with it. Make it a chance to grow.
- Knowledge — Knowledge is fantastic, but never neglect the acquisition of it. Try to take any opportunity that involves learning. Learning is the critical component of an Infinite game.
- Quality — many times, we strive for quality. In doing so, overlook that quantity is how we discover. Learning from our failures, producing works, not fixating on making something perfect, but enjoy the process of learning over and over again.
Heading for Home
I say this today when we need to recall that we are all playing the same game.
We all live on this planet together.
While we might play for different teams, we need to find those on the other teams we can respect and admire. We might not always like it when the home team loses, but we can appreciate the other team playing the game.
We need to change our mindset toward the long term, toward the infinite.
It may be the optimist in me, and the memory of my grandparents, but we all have the power to change our lives. To make them better each day.
We just need to look for the opportunity, learn whenever we can, and produce the quantity of work that keeps us moving forward.