THE GAME YOU WERE BORN TO PLAY
Where Impossible Becomes Inevitable
3-Minute Read
Most leaders play to win. Masters create a whole new game.
Imagine watching a basketball game without a court, no boundaries, no scoreboard, no understanding of what counts as a win. That’s life without context: action without meaning, movement without direction.
But most of us never question the context we’re in, because we’ve never stepped outside of it.
Context isn’t your mindset. It’s not your strategy, beliefs, or goals. It’s the invisible playing field your life is unfolding inside. And most high-performers are competing on a field they didn’t design.
Shaped by culture, media, upbringing, and unprocessed pain, they’re unknowingly operating from frameworks like:
Success equals survival.
Your worth is in your output.
Approval is your access point to value.
This week in The Grip, we’re diving into one of the most misunderstood—and most powerful—tools of transformation: context. You’ll discover what it is, how it shapes everything you experience, and why the ability to consciously create it is your most potent lever for change in life, business, and leadership.
Once you understand how to generate the space you operate from, your results and impact will never be the same.
what is context?
Context is not an idea or mindset. It’s not a belief, goal, or behavior. It’s the unseen space that allows for all those things; the game behind the rules.
The game of basketball allows for three-pointers, fouls, and slam-dunks. It rewards certain actions and penalizes others. But the game itself isn’t any of those things; it’s the space that gives those things meaning.
Life works the same way.
And most people are playing a game they never chose.
Default Context = Default Life
We’re born into inherited contexts:
Do more to matter.
Hustle or fall behind.
Only outcomes count.
The rules aren’t written anywhere. But they’re reinforced everywhere. And we don’t question the game; we just try to win it. Even high-performers fall into this trap, mistaking relentless effort for intentional creation.
Thankfully, just like games, contexts are inventible. In any moment, you can create a new one to play.
Creating New Context
You don’t need evidence to create a new context. You need only vision: the conscious awareness of new possibility.
The Wright brothers didn’t first prove humans could fly. The envisioned the possibility, declared it, lived from it, and eventually validated it by demonstrating it to the world. That’s the power of created context: it becomes real because you live it into existence. Evidence doesn’t precede context; it results from it.
As a visionary leader, your power lies not just in what you do but, more importantly, in the context you choose to live and lead from.
Imagine waking up each day inside the context: "Who I am makes a difference."
In that space:
Washing dishes becomes contribution.
Leading a team becomes transformation.
Missed goals become feedback, not failure.
Everything that happens inside a particular context reinforces that that’s the context you’re in, that’s the game you’re playing. It’s context that determines how you interpret circumstance—the meaning you give it—never the other way around.
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Trim Tabbing: Small Lever, Massive Shift
Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller
American architect and futurist, Buckminster Fuller, taught a powerful concept called trim tabbing:
“Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the trim tab.
A tiny thing at the end of a rudder. It’s like a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. It takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the individual [human] can be a trim tab.”
Trim tabbing is about maximum impact with minimal force, applied at the right place, with precision and intention.
Intentionally created context is your trim tab for powerful transformation. Most leaders try to inject empowering beliefs into disempowering contexts. They repeat, “Who I am makes a difference,” while still living inside the context, “I don’t matter.”
The result? Exhaustion. Frustration. Temporary wins that don’t stick.
Because their best efforts are just racking up points in the old game.
But when you shift context, when “Who I am makes a difference” becomes the game itself, no outcome can diminish it. It’s your starting place—where you come from—and every score, foul, win, or loss reinforces this new game you’re in. That fundamentally transforms how you move through life.
Forcing illegal moves into old games is unnecessary when you have the capacity to create a new game altogether.
This is the essence of transformational leadership. It’s not about arduous, painstaking work to make an old game better; it’s about creating a brand-new game that makes the impossible inevitable.
“Evidence doesn’t precede context; it results from it.”
Bucky Fuller had “Call me Trimtab” engraved on his gravestone. He understood that the individual, acting from a an intentionally created context, could move mountains.
The default context you currently find yourself in isn’t designed for the service you’re called to bring forth. If you want to actualize the impact you’re capable of, stop tweaking tactics and make a new game.
Be the one who defines what matters.
Be the one who makes the difference.
The day you intentionally create a new context for your life is the day you start mastering the game you were born to play.
Keep creating!
key takeaways
What determines the outcomes I experience as a leader?
Context—more than strategy, mindset, or tactics—is the silent architect behind every result. Once you become aware of the invisible game you're playing, everything can change.
Do I need external proof before I shift how I lead or live?
No. You don’t need evidence; you need vision. The moment you consciously choose a new context, you begin living into it. Results follow context, not the other way around.
How can changing context affect my daily experience and long-term impact?
When you create an intentional context, ordinary tasks become meaningful, setbacks become feedback, and burnout gives way to mastery. It’s how leaders transform their experience and results from the inside out.
May you prosper in every way!
Becky & TPL Team
52 Maxims of Conscious Choosing To Create the Deeply Satisfying Life You Desire.