THE BEST LITTLE GROWTH GAMES IN THE WORLD

- GAMES FOR CONFIDENCE -
the Best Little Growth Games in the World

a single-payment opportunity to outgrow your anxiety & become your own confidence coach

How Great Would It Feel?

Has anxiety ever stopped you from taking confident action?

If you’ve ever wished for more confidence in any area of your life, the answer is YES.

• How great would it feel if you could speak up in the midst of conflict, or have a difficult conversation without overthinking it beforehand? 

• How much easier life would be if you could make decisions without second-guessing yourself every time? 

• What if you could promote your value, skills and abilities without hesitating? 

• Or join in with a happy circle of friends at a party like it wasn’t a big deal?

You’ve probably tried the usual approaches to acting with more confidence in situations that make you anxious. Like giving yourself peps talks and repeating affirmations, working out at the gym, reading self-help books, getting support from family and friends, or—if your anxiety is severe—medication.

And yet you’re finding that anxiety still stops you from taking actions that matter 

None of us completely escape the limiting influences of anxiety. For some, those anxieties are widespread, affecting many parts of daily life. This is known as generalized anxiety disorder.

For many more of us, our anxieties are situation-specific (having to do with work, school, finances, relationships or health for example) and we wind up having to steer around or shy away from particular people and circumstances—even though part of us deeply wants to engage.

Many celebrities have come forward to help de-stigmatize anxiety by describing their own struggles—demonstrating that anxiety can affect high-performing individuals as much as it can marginalized segments of society.

Whoopi Goldberg’s fear of flying forced her to travel between New York and LA by bus for decades. She only overcame the issue using a form of exposure therapy.

Singers Selena Gomez and Lady Gaga, actress Emma Stone, and NBA star Marcus Morris have all been transparent with their stories of struggling with anxiety.

Anxiety is a human issue and even if we are not clinically disabled by it, the majority of us suffer from impairments in some situations that prevent us from fully participating in our lives.

Maybe you’re thinking…

…you might have to live with your specific anxiety triggers for the rest of your life and you’ve resigned yourself to:

• avoiding certain people who you work or live with

• inventing excuses for backing out of appointments & commitments

• shying away from career opportunities

• watching your mind run circles around inconsequential details

• settling for the “good enough” state of your relationship.

Now you’re just waiting to reincarnate in more confident skin. 

If so—you’ve likely been infected by two of the most common cultural viruses.

One is a false hope and the other is an outright lie.

1. The false hope is that your anxiety will eventually go away if you ignore it. 

2. The lie is that your anxiety has to go away before you can act. 

Together, these two beliefs completely disable the ordinary and natural process of your growth.

So what’s the truth about anxiety and growth?

anxiety and GROWTH go hand in hand 

Like the way you feel as you try to muster the courage to disconnect from someone who claims to care about you, but only brings you down. Anxiety will be present as you say the words, “Sorry, I’m busy.” And yet, those words will still set you free from a toxic relationship.

If growth is something you value, then anxiety—at some point—is going to be right there with you as you step onto an empty dance floor, stumble forward into conversation with a stranger, speak up in a meeting, or say “yes” to an opportunity that feels beyond your current capacity.

A part of you already knows that embracing your growth is going to bring you face to face with your anxiety. And so perhaps you avoid participating in areas of your life that trigger anxious feelings.

But you also know from experience that avoiding those triggers doesn’t work either.

When anxiety wins and stops you from engaging, then you live with the background anxiety of too much safety and feeling stuck.

Anxiety avoidance Wastes Our Time

Have you ever wondered why you get to the end of a day having accomplished nothing?

A review of our day would remind us of what didn’t happen in the presence of our anxiety.

• We shuffled papers, went to the bathroom, fiddled with emails and snacked on Hershey’s kisses instead of having that difficult conversation with a colleague.

• We allowed one person to completely dominate our last Zoom meeting instead of holding them to the agenda and getting something done.

• We collected information that we’ll never use, read emails we’ll never answer, researched diseases we’ll never have (but think we have), and derailed our exercise plans with a single bag of Cheetos instead of giving our best to our family or our work.

Yes, anxiety wastes our time in all those ways and more.

And we haven’t even started on how anxiety avoidance wastes our money when we:

• Buy seminars and courses we don't finish because we’d have to act on them.

• Shop for things we don’t need.

• Keep items we should have returned a the store because we fear a confrontation.

• Stop at Starbucks to stress snack because we can’t cope with our feelings. 

• Subscribe to entertainment distractions because we don’t want to face our real-life challenges.

(The word Prime used to be mean opportunity and the best part of your life. Now it’s a branded invitation to distract yourself into oblivion.)

Perhaps Worst of All—We Lose our self-Respect

Allowing our anxiety to direct our lives would be like letting Piglet decide which adventures Winnie-the-Pooh gets to take. The tales we’ve all come to love never would have happened as Pooh and Piglet would have sat at home over-indulging in tea.

Or perhaps you’ve seen the move “Inside Out” where the purple and trembling emotion of Fear stars as one of the main characters. In the clutches of our anxiety-persona, our list of interesting passions and pursuits gets vetoed faster than we can get our socks on for the day.

The result of letting this happen is we can lose respect for ourselves. We also lose the respect of those whose regard is important to us: friends, family, colleagues and peers.

Once our self-respect starts to slide we can get caught in a vicious-circle where inaction and low self-esteem gather momentum and spin us into a downward spiral of paralysis and unhappiness.

Are You an Archived Creative?

People with a large amounts of creative energy tend to produce things. If that creative energy is shadowed by anxiety, it can lead to what I call an “archived creative.”

If you already are an archived creative, you’re probably already thinking about things you’ve written, designed, drawn, painted, recorded, coded, drafted, engineered or invented that the world has never seen.

Not because it’s not good stuff. But because you have a high degree of anxiety about sharing it.

In fact, the opposite is probably the case. What you’ve created likely has enormous value for the right audience, but to find that right audience you’d have to expose it to many people who might not recognize its brilliance, utility, elegance or skill—and that’s hard to bear for those of us with performance anxiety.

What this means is that there are works of creative contribution that are confined to digital storage, stashed inside of closets and under beds, buried under piles of paper or burning away inside our own minds and hearts all because we haven’t been educated on how to work with the presence of anxiety.

Anxiety makes us feel bad 

We’d sooner schedule a root canal on our birthday than embrace our anxiety.

Not only because of the butterflies in our stomach, the muscle tension, the headaches, the difficulty concentrating, the sleep trouble and the daytime fatigue,

…but because we fail to contribute what we know we’re capable of.

When our values and our inner sense of capacity become disconnected from our actual actions in the outer world we experience incongruence.

When we create more alignment between our ideal self and our actions, we experience congruence. As you’ve probably guessed, congruence is a very good feeling and provides solid footing for a healthy self-image.

A humanistic psychologist named Carl Rogers made the concept of psychological congruence and self-actualization popular. Rogers shifted the expertise of personal growth from the “expert” to the individual.

“As no one else can know how we perceive, we are the best experts on ourselves.” Carl Rogers

This is good news since it means that our sense of congruence, value and worth doesn’t rely on some external authority.

And yet the flip side of this self-determination is that we’re the ones who have to do the work of living a congruent life.

We could say that Rogers’ model of human development implies that incongruence is an important experience, because it provides intrinsic motivation to “do the work” of seeking congruence.

Since incongruence is a major source of anxiety, we could say that…

the experience of anxiety is an important part of growth

Wait. What!?

"Isn’t anxiety the appendix of our emotional lives? A useless organ that we’d be better off without?”

In a word — “NO!” 

In fact, anxiety is a highly useful navigational tool in your quest for greater confidence. It’s the GPS on the road to your heart’s desire, because it alerts you to the patterns of your avoidance. 

Avoidance patterns are clue-trails that lead to growth hotspots you can train yourself to move toward. Research has shown that this “moving toward” is the best thing you can do to outgrow your anxiety. Known as exposure therapy, it’s the method that Whoopi Goldberg used to rise above her fear of flying.

For instance, perhaps you’re anxious about speaking in front of a group? Avoiding that particular situation makes presentation anxiety worse, not better.

The psychological community now knows this as a researched fact.

As Ellen Hendriksen, Ph.D. and author of “How to Be Yourself,” explains,

“…avoidance is disastrous. It is enemy number one of emotional well-being and perpetuates all anxieties, not just social.”

The alternative is to take small steps toward the challenges we want to avoid.

Moving toward our challenges is an essential activity if we want to enjoy the congruence that Carl Rogers wanted every person to enjoy.

What would that look like in the example of public speaking?

• You can start by speaking out loud in front of a mirror. 

• Then speak to a small gathering of family and friends. 

• Speak alongside a colleague to a small gathering at the office. 

• Speak alone to the same small gathering. 

• Host a tradeshow booth and get familiar with engaging customers. 

• Sign up to do a break-out session engaging the same customers in a group. 

• Sign up to speak as a panelist in a full conference setting. 

• Give a brief keynote onstage in a line-up of other speakers. 

• Be the sole keynote speaker for a full educational session. 

Viola. Transformation of anxiety, one small step at a time!

And, you can go as slowly as you need to with such a process.

Even if it took you two years to work your way through the above list, it would be worth the sustained effort.

Most anxieties can be outgrown with similar habit engineering

You can train yourself to take small steps beyond your old limits and magically expand those “no fly” zones beyond what you ever dreamed possible.

Before you know it, you’ll be enjoying a vastly satisfying, richly engaging and meaningful life. A life that you previously only viewed from inside your personal safety bubble—obeying the “Keep Out - High Voltage Anxiety” signs that have been nailed to the inside of your comfort-zone since you can remember, warning you not to stray from your personal prison.

I know for a fact that a year from now, even months from now, you could be looking back at your old comfort-zone the way an adult visits an early childhood home.

“Gosh, it’s SO much smaller than I remember!”

You’ll be wondering how and why you settled for a life that walled out most of your heart’s desire. 

The science shows that much of anxiety is learned and that it can be unlearned 

Mental health professionals now know that avoiding what makes us anxious is detrimental to our self-esteem and only reinforces our belief that we can’t handle it. 

Neurologists know that the brain influences behavior, but that our behavior can also influence and reshape the brain. 

Business consultants and human performance coaches know that backing away from one’s fears is a recipe for mediocrity, not exceptional contribution.

Family and friends of anxiety ridden people know that there are treasures hidden within the ones they love—and they wish their anxious friends could see themselves and their gifts clearly, rather than through the lens of self-doubt.

And all of this points to the irreplaceable benefit of challenging our anxiety with fresh thinking and new action.      

The days of being a victim of your anxiety are over

Anxiety is no longer something that anyone has to be imprisoned by. Today we have access to clinical understanding, cultural acceptance, and innovative approaches that make anxiety reduction and confidence building entirely possible in relationship to our long-standing challenges.

You now actually have a choice. 

It’s this:

1.     Learn how to dance with your anxiety on a path that leads to personal discovery, meaningful growth and greater confidence, or 

2.     Avoid it and be happy with Netflix, your couch, and that 4-month old container of ice cream that calls out to you whenever life knocks on your door to play.

I can help you with choice number one.

Hi. My Name is Rick Lewis

I am an author, public speaker, corporate entertainer and confidence coach.

Because of my profession people often don’t believe me when I tell them that I’ve lived with the symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder my whole life.

Getting a project like this up and running, for example, has triggered more doubts and fears than I care to count, but what I’ve learned is how to keep going instead of letting my anxiety stop me.

I’ve gradually reached many goals that represent my highest wishes for myself, for my family and for my vocation, despite the emotional alarms that routinely cause me intestinal distress.

I’ve done it by incrementally training myself to stay in motion, despite the alarms.

You might be wondering what “staying in motion” looks like?

It looks like paying close attention to the stories that my anxious mind tells me regarding what I can and can’t do, what will and won’t work, what’s a bad idea and might go wrong.

Then it looks like actually testing those stories with a small amount of action that allows me to navigate my life based on real-life experience instead of worst-case fantasies.

The testing process has turned into a kind of game for me, where I set myself a small goal to engage whatever my anxious mind wants to avoid.

My anxiety-ridden mind, for example, tells me that it’s a bad idea for me to speak to any women that I find attractive. It tells me that I’ll likely be rejected, judged or ignored and that will feel crushingly painful. 

Unconsciously, many of us are limiting our life engagement all the time with such pre-determinations of our potential.

If we make these unconscious stories and beliefs conscious, we’ll see them when they arise, and then we can test them so the story can be corrected or updated. 

I did this recently when I was out getting some photocopying done. 

While I was waiting for the clerk to finish my job a woman came up and stood in line behind me. She had on a bright pink sweater that you could have located from the height of a passing satellite.

Had this been anyone other than an attractive woman wearing the sweater I would have made a friendly comment, but because the woman was attractive, I saw myself immediately clam up and prepare to keep to myself. 

I immediately saw the story my anxiety was telling me (don’t talk to the attractive woman because she might reject you) to which I responded internally with the thought…

Ok, then let’s test it out

Before my usual avoidance strategy could get a strong foothold, I turned to the woman and said,

“Excuse me. I believe all the pink in the world just got sucked into your sweater.” 

She laughed, gave me a warm relaxed smile and said,

“Yes, this is my way of making my day better.”

What happened here?

Not only did I lift my own spirits and prove my fears wrong, I may have also helped to liberate a fellow human traveler from her own limiting beliefs, who perhaps put on a pink sweater as a deliberate way to challenge her own over-bearing inner-safety manager.

My willingness to engage may have helped this woman rewire her limiting engagement patterns at the same instant that I was working with my own. 

Imagine a world where human beings are working in conscious cooperation to liberate each other from the confines of their unfounded fears! 

Over the years I’ve gotten into the habit of playing this kind of game with myself and it’s been enormously helpful.

The game I’ve just shared involves being alert enough to notice an opponent on the field of my own life; social anxiety and more specifically, fear of attractive women.

The action step involves testing the accuracy of the fear by taking a small step toward it.

The old habit, for those of us who lack confidence, is to deny the presence of an opportunity for testing our anxious assumptions.

We ordinarily process the presence of any anxiety unconsciously and simply avoid or leave the scene entirely and go about our day, avoiding other challenges as they come along without even knowing that we’re dodging them.

Any good, anxiety-challenging game begins when we notice the opponents—fear, trepidation, hesitation, doubt—and say yes to scrimmaging with those inner 260-pound psychic linebackers. (They always look much more intimidating than they actually are once we get on the playing field with them. )

Can I stay on the field of play instead of letting my imagined fears cause me to disengage and become a spectator of my own life?

In short, the use of such a game is a way to act on behalf of yourself rather than on behalf of an anxiety or fear that is parading as you in the moment 

A TIME OF TREMENDOUS ANXIETY FOR ME

I went through a very intense growth period during the 2009 economic downturn that involved transitioning from being a comedian at corporate events to becoming a motivational speaker. Not only was I a comedian back then, I was mute. I literally didn’t speak. I was a silent physical comedian.

To make the transition to speaking I started by writing a business book with almost no background in business and I created a keynote with no track record in public speaking. To say it was a time of tremendous anxiety would be an understatement.

I didn’t sleep for two days before my first-ever keynote.

But I made it through these big challenges by taking consistent small steps and gaming myself toward the goal. 

Years after I was successfully delivering keynotes to many Fortune 500 companies, I realized that the games I had created for myself could be useful to others. I started writing them down and sharing them as part of my motivational presentations.

For the last ten years I’ve researched, personally experimented with and designed what I call “Games for Confidence”

The Games are a series of exposure therapy exercises that gradually and gently build our capacity to play more happily and meaningfully within our everyday lives.

Over time I’ve refined these Games based on user feedback and my own experience. The results that people have been getting encouraged me to develop them further and create a collection of what I like to call…

The Best Little Growth Games in the World

I’m calling my Games for Confidence “the best” growth games in the world because I’ve held all of the Games to an exacting level of design that meets my own needs as an anxiety-prone user.

The GAMES focus on congruence

Given that personal incongruence is a major source of anxiety, the Games have been designed to lead us toward activities that we’ve been culturally trained to discount or ignore—to our detriment.

Most of the Games fall into the category of “recovery” actions, giving us the opportunity to practice behaviors that awaken and empower the natural disposition of our human spirit.

The GAMES are unique 

That meant no, “Do your best and forget the rest,” stock aphorisms and advice. 

My anxious mind is a very discerning mind and it needs to be engaged in a fresh way if I want it to pay attention. The Games feature action ideas that light a creative spark in my brain while also appealing to my sense of fun.

The GAMES are easy to play

I’m not sure about you, but I’m busy. 

I didn’t want to have to stop my day and find a quiet room where I can spend time processing my emotions and introspecting only to return to my day having fallen behind with the rest of my responsibilities.

I wanted exercises I could apply within the natural flow of my day without leaving it behind.

The GAMES have clear rules

The research shows how valuable structure can be to the anxious mind. 

Each Game describes a discrete action with a beginning and an end. I needed to be able to measure whether I played the Game or not, for the simple reason that actually doing it gave me a sense of completion and accomplishment which leads to the feeling of a win and of progress, which is super helpful to the counter the challenging chemistry of my anxious headspace.

Some of the Games even define a role to play that can be applied in a specific kind of situation, so it’s even easier to recognize an opportunity to play when it comes along.

The GAMES align with the research

Aside from actions with obvious benefit, it was important to me to do the research that demonstrated the effectiveness of the Games.

The Games represent hundreds of hours of research that in most cases have been woven into the background of the Game’s construction, though some of that research is called out in explicit form within a Game when it serves a better understanding of its use.

The GAMES decrease dependence

My intention for these Games is that they liberate the user instead of enslaving them to a set of ideas, a program or an approach that someone would eventually feel lost without.

There are enough Games in the program that you’re almost guaranteed to understand the principle of how to build your own confidence by challenging your anxieties well before you run out of Games.

I’d encourage you to stop using them once you’ve learned how to be your own confidence coach.

This is the over-arching benefit of this program, that you gain a skill that is even more valuable than the Games themselves, which is the capacity to create good Games yourself as you proceed through life.

The GAMES are immediately rewarding

I wanted to identify actions that would not only make me feel a greater sense of agency and capacity, but also have the kind of effect on the outside world that would improve my environment. 

The Games leave a quiet trail of better relationship, brighter outlook, and helpful action that are immediately apparent. 

The GAMES have been tested

Because I played all the Games myself, I already knew which ones were helpful to me personally, but I also wanted to make sure that others found each one useful as well. 

I’ve tested over 500 Games with beta groups of thousands of people who have attested to the benefits of the ones I have selected for inclusion here.

What do users and professionals say about the Games?

Here’s what a few longtime subscribers are saying about the Games.

“Hi Rick, I love this game! The writing’s really engaging: one of the best pieces I’ve seen from you so far. It’s essentially one piece of solid, practical advice, backed up sufficiently by science, biology, etc. that the reader can plug into instantly and begin to experiment with. And I couldn’t help thinking of an angle of approach from my days as a mental health professional. Which is that: (a) we procrastinate to avoid pain; (b) but procrastination can result in energy loss, ill health and most especially – anxiety - pain of a different sort. When we’re avoiding something, part of our energy and attention is going down the funnel of that unfinished business, whether we want it to or not. And we all know what unfinished business can feel like.” 

Michael Menager

“The days of panic attacks in public places is over. I express my gratitude to you and want to let you know I'm happy that you've been a part of my self-discoveries. I'm Confident in the days, weeks, and years to come, I will review, and continue to share, these Games and continue to grow. You, through these Games, have taught me new ways to live my life to its fullest. Your words, the weekly challenges, helpful suggestions, and expressions of positive expectations, have encouraged me to go beyond what I thought I could possibly do! I set a goal for myself, a year ago, to make it to 100 Games. Then, I (we) did it! My life is enriched with what I've learned from you.  THANK YOU!” Warmest Regards,

Jennifer P.

“Totally dug deep inside and used all my Game ammunition this past week. Instead of just letting stuff go at work with my boss and in my personal life with an ex-boyfriend, I confronted it head on. I had the hard conversations! I feel great. Got a “no” from the ex (not surprised) and an I’ll-see-what-I-can-do from the boss. Both would have been “no”s if I didn’t ask, and I also would have been silencing myself out of fear. The lump inside my throat would have grown. Instead I feel confident in my current standing in life because I spoke my truth. It feels like I staked a claim in my life instead of letting myself wither away into the abyss by not talking and sticking up for myself. It’s the exact opposite feeling than what I get when I reinforce my invisibility in this world.  So, as you would say, “Game on!”

Kristi Pretti

“I appreciate your games a lot, they have been very helpful from the start in building confidence. I've always felt abnormal and now I can admit that I am abnormal, that is who I am.  I can now feel normal about myself and accept myself as abnormal—as I really am. It's a joy to be free from that expectation that the world has labeled me to be. The games keep me on track.”

Ken Curry

“I cannot put a price on your life‘s work. But I know your messages have meant a lot to me over the time I have received them. When I clean my email I get rid of 95% and always keep yours. I am a nurse and these are interesting times. Your emails are very important because they are positive. Positivity negates virus. God, you and the lyrics to feeling good by Michael Buble get me to work with no fear. I love your messages. Keep on with your great work.”   

Maggie Huckabay

“Your weekly email provides me inspiration and courage to do the things that I may otherwise not do. The ideas to overcome fears that you provide make sense and don't feel daunting or impossible to do. I like that. The information you provide, in my opinion, is always useful, practical and doable. Sometimes information/advice received from other "advice giving sites" is so obscure and unattainable you're left feeling defeated. You never make me feel that way and I always look forward to your words. Rick you are a source of energy that lights up this world. Thank you.”  

Suzanne Addario

“I would like to let you know that your games are awesome. I used to be clinically depressed and I know that people tend to find it difficult to differentiate between sadness and depression. I signed up for the Games on recommendation from a personal coach I was working with who recommended you. Each email you send is food for thought, allow me to get new insights into who I am, the outside world, my profession etc. I have already subscribed to a few projects focused on achieving success, improving oneself, etc. - however after some time I become bored or demotivated to continue the subscription. There are only two I have stayed with for long time: Your Games for Confidence and Your World Within. Each of your emails is surprising, inspiring, interesting, intriguing, educational and valuable. Each time when I start reading an email from you I cannot wait to read the whole message. I would say that your emails are great stories that inspire, develop a reader and give new insights.” 

Anna

“Wow Rick – this was a tough one. But awesome nonetheless – it is amazing what tapping into your feelings can bring. You don’t realize how much you beat yourself up until you really pay attention to it. Love the mirror time – very effective (and uncomfortable). Thanks for this game!!”

Blake E. Cotton

“Thanks Rick! You hit a nerve here and I plan to step out of my comfort zone today. I do enjoy your Games of Confidence!”

Mona Heck

“I am in exactly the place you describe and am going to follow up on your challenge. Thanks for the inspiration. Enjoy the day and week.”

Holly Rosenthal

“Good Rick, I pray all is well my friend. I thoroughly enjoy your emails and resources they have been a huge help to me.” 

Jeermal Sylvester

“Thank you for game 10!  It is incredibly stress-reducing and relaxing. I was finally able to do it for three days in a row this week. I have a high-stress job with never enough time for everything that needs attention. The first thing that came to mind with game 10 was the 60’s song, “Slow down, you move to fast…”.  Yes, I’m that old. Your games challenge old habits. This Gives me perspective on what I’m doing – it needs doing, but it’s not that important. I’m going to try to set aside 5 minutes for game 10 every day. Thank you!”

Charles Dresser

“Lagom is a Swedish term that means “not too little, not too much, just right.” We can apply this to our whole lives! Another term I like to use is “good enough” or “embracing imperfection,” and this is something that I have actually been working on the past month. It was so great to have the universe confirm this with me through your next game!”

Kathleen Benney

“Game 9 came into my inbox at the same time as a difficult, tense, unfriendly e-mail from a teacher at my studio. My usual style is to avoid or accommodate her. Today I did the third option. This led to a long and heated phone conversation. I did not retreat or overly accommodate, but I did listen, and things are now in better shape between us – clearer. I’d say the Games are allowing me to give my loyalty to my vision instead of my fear. Thanks again!”

Karen Frankovitch

“Since working as a DBT therapist I have become more aware of my need to “win” over my spouse, especially to correct him when I think I’m right (which is almost always). I have been reminding myself that it’s more important to have a good relationship than to be right and I less often “correct” him.”

Patricia Scott

“Thank you for always sending out "stuff" that not only lifts me up, but lifts others as well.”

Jim Carroll

“If I had to say what your games are about in a few words I’d call them “thoughtful work on self-improvement.”

Khealynn Harris

“These games open my mind.”

Kristina Conger

The Games are also backed by mental health professionals.

“Lewis doesn’t talk about developing confidence from a “know-it-all-expert” position. Rather, he shares his own confidence challenges and some fantastically delightful interventions to diminish stress and increase confidence. Even if you are not confident that you can become confident, Lewis will gently, and entertainingly, guide you to tap the confidence streak you were born with.”

Tracy Todd, PhD - CEO - American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy

“It’s fascinating to me that Rick has been able to independently produce valid clinical insights from nothing more than acute observation of human dynamics and cultural patterns. The value for a therapist such as myself is that it underlines, simplifies and highlights what it is that people really need—experiential confidence in relationship to the challenges of being human. Rick shows us how to get it.”

John Souza Jr, LMFT, DMFT - Director of Research and Evaluation - Change, Inc.

“Enjoy Lewis’ wonderfully engaging writing as he weaves his personal stories with scientific research and expert advice. His deep understanding of what gets in the way of confidence allows him to get right to the heart of how to reclaim it. If you want to boost your confidence in challenging situations, look no further.”

Dr Geoffrey Carr - Registered Psychologist

“Rick has done a masterful job infusing current research with his life’s work and making it relevant and accessible to others. His tools and books serve as a guide for tapping into our social brains and developing new neural pathways that serve us well. I have his book, Confident Under Pressure, at the top of my list to share with clients, friends and family!”

Linda Rozak Burton - Certified Neuroleadership Institute Coach, Int’l Coaching Federation Accreditation

The Games Are Also Easily Applied in Business Settings

“I will be doing game #48, “Say Yes or No.” It is a great way to be decisive and people seem to enjoy the benefit of being around someone who is decisive. Thank you!”

Ed Brenneman

“I own a telecommunications company as well as a real estate investment company and am considered successful, and I didn't get here by thinking like everyone else.  If you want to be great you have to think above and beyond the masses and do life differently.  When I first met Rick Lewis I knew he was one of those rare individuals who also thinks above and beyond the meandering zombie-like 'norm' of this world.  He's in a whole other stratosphere of thinkers, and he has a fun way of conveying his message and expanding your world. What he teaches is to get outside of the box of the common thinking and expand your possibilities which in turn will expand your income and in my case has even improved my marriage. Rick, thank you for all you do in making this world a better place with intelligence and humor--I love it! I need these games. They make me think. They make me more of who I was intended to be.”  

Justin Bentley

“I wanted to say thank you for your emails and encouragement. It has been a tremendous help and I am looking forward to 2020. I found this email even more interesting as I stepped out of my comfort zone a few weeks ago. I’ve had a fascination with risk management for several years and finally reach out to our risk department, my co-worker not only shared his knowledge and advice, but was very happy to do so. He spoke with me for a while, sent me information and classes recommended which encouraged me to voice my long-term goal to my supervisor. She was very supportive and open to me taking classes and designations to reach my goals. Thank you so much for helping me find and develop my better me.”

Corrina Gilbertson

“Wow, your timing is impeccable. A colleague and I were just asked to reprise a roundtable discussion we led last month on Negotiating Conflict, for a group in January. I will be using this to help us expand the topic! I’m a lifelong learner and your Games very often present a concept or practice I am familiar with or even use, but you always take it a step further. The thoughtfulness, depth and research you put into these Games really shows and I’m deeply appreciative of the little journey I get to take each week with your Games.”

Laura Reinbold

“I have been using several of your previous games to give me confidence in making decisions regarding my family and business. I feel good about it all and am not stressing. The games have been more beneficial to me than many years of therapy. I owe you a huge thank you – at a minimum – for giving me a good set of tools.” 

Keith Mobley

“When I first started receiving the Games I was challenged by the thought that I wasn’t good enough. Signing up was me saying to myself, “Hey I might not be sophisticated, but I know what makes my heart sing and that’s thinking outside the box.” The emails would come to my work address and so I would I see them amidst a flurry of getting things done. I would typically be in fear thinking, “I can’t do this job, it’s just too much,” when this breath of fresh air would arrive to my inbox. I would read the Game voraciously saying “YES, YES, YES” thinking “this man shows true leadership.” And if I play these games, I will be a better person. I would send some to my wife as many of the games fit the life challenges she and I were facing. Rick gets to the heart of the human condition in a playful way. It’s like a comic strip that has four simple drawings and yet delivers a profound truth. The games validate struggle. It affirms we don’t always have confidence, but it is a truly needed asset and a learned skill and it’s never too late to gain it.”

David DeBiasi

“Thank you for taking time to respond! I have started a challenge with my agents in my office to help them build their confidence!! I challenge them each week by printing out and sharing the week’s Game. They are a week behind me so I am familiar with the Game already. SO this last week we did Week 3 Stop Watching…I have been doing the challenges as well—then we discuss their results as a group. We actually have the discussion from the previous week BEFORE we watch the next challenge. The feedback has been very positive. I have an interesting group here as far as how many years on the job…anywhere from 40+ years to not quite 1 full year yet…I also have a large age group my eldest is 86 years old and my youngest is 32 years old…both males and females in the mix. They are really enjoying themselves and so am I!”

Lisa Daniel-King

“WOW - What a challenge you have presented!!! You have made me think and also have given me answers to a problem we currently have within our company. You continually stretch the mind of myself and our training team!!!! Thank you and I am believing  for a mighty return to you of pure goodness and favor for all the times you bless us with a new way to think!!”

Theresa Lipar

“I have a goal to ask 3 people every day if they are exploring options outside of their current job/work situation. Being an introvert, this takes me time to do, as I need to give myself plenty of opportunities to engage with and connect with people. Because of the nature of my full-time job (public accounting), there are many days where I have to work late, which, as you can imagine, makes this additional goal difficult to achieve. However, I find a way. And if, for some reason, I can't, I make sure that the balance of the week is up. Just thought you'd like to know how I play your game on a daily basis. =) Thanks!”

Greg S.

“Your Games have helped me to reflect on my leadership and my role in our micro-community.  I have used some of your suggestions with my colleagues here at the law firm. I have also used them as items to simply reflect on and stash away for future use. I would definitely recommend these Games to anyone who wants to serve more effectively in a leadership position. Sincere appreciation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” 

Arthur Boylan

We all know what it’s like

We all know what it’s like to have anxiety get the upper hand in times of uncertainty and when large changes are present in our lives.

When I’m not taking personal responsibility for my unconscious reactions to uncertainty, I wind up trying to control people and circumstances around me in a way that doesn’t create a happy environment for myself or for others.

But I’ve learned that I don’t actually need to be cocooned in certainty.

It’s not my outer circumstances, but my inner capacity for meaningful action that needs to be predictable and reliable.

I use Games for Confidence to train myself for that reliability.

I’m living proof that it’s possible to outgrow your anxiety a little at a time.

It would be my greatest privilege to share with you what I’ve learned.

Ready to build your confidence?

You get your subscription to The Best Little Growth Games in the World here on the registration page.

Because I’m anxious about selling myself, it works out to your benefit, because I am ridiculously in the camp of over-delivering.

I think you’ll agree the moment you see what I’m charging on the next page. (I really want you to like me and be happy.)

3 Years of Game Support

This is a gentle, gradual and fun 3-year course! that delivers a once a week Game you get to work with for seven days.

You get the Game each Monday and then a weekly Game reminder each Wednesday.

Pay Only Once

You only pay once for the whole course.

I’ve literally had many people say that playing just one of the Games was worth the whole course fee.

But there’s more than 150 Games!

Increase your confidence by 48%

A user survey showed that subscribers experienced an average 48% increase in their confidence levels.

The same survey showed that many people experienced benefits just from reading each week’s Game.

Without even intending to play the Games they found themselves in many cases implementing new behavior naturally into their lives.

yes! there are Bonuses

There are two bonus giveaways that will be delivered immediately to your inbox which, if you’ve read this far, you’ll be very interested in.

They’re entertaining and educational extras that will tell you more about my performing story and my journey from anxiety to triumphant action!

The first bonus is a pdf copy of my 5-star Amazon book, “7 Rules You Were Born to Break: How Intelligent Misbehavior Can Help You and Your Organization Thrive.”

The second bonus is Part 1 of my audiobook, “Confident Under Pressure: Discover the Hidden Advantages of Stress,” read by yours truly. This section of the book details the 5 questions you can use to turn anxiety into action.

The Guarantee

And also, the course is guaranteed to help you. You can try it for 60 days and if you’re not getting the results you want from it, just let me know and I’ll refund your money. Plus, you can keep the bonuses!

You can’t lose on the help I’m offering. I hope you’ll try it out.

Why am I doing this?

I’ve been able to make a living doing what I love for my entire life, but it took consistently approaching my anxieties.

There is nothing more thrilling me than watching others pursue their greatest joys in spite of the doubts that stand in their path. 

Earlier I invited you to imagine a world where human beings are working in conscious cooperation to liberate each other from the confines of their unfounded fears! 

I’ve founded Games for Confidence to pursue that vision.

Now that you’ve imagined it with me, you get to actually participate in the vision if you choose.

The High Cost of Low Confidence

Many of us have gotten really skilled at ignoring challenges and opportunities. But it’s a very high cost we pay for ignoring areas where our confidence is low.

My existing subscribers once pitched in with a survey I sent out to better understand the real impact of avoiding life’s everyday challenges.

They reported that not addressing their low levels of confidence caused them to waste their time by:

·      Procrastinating.

·      Delaying and hesitating due to self-doubts.

·      Distracting themselves from things that need to be done.

·      Over-thinking things.

·      Spending too much time on the phone or the computer.

·      Ignoring responsibilities.

·      Pursuing frivolous activities.

·      Over-contemplating conflicts instead of addressing them immediately.

·      Excessive worrying, and

·      Indulging in online self-help materials that make them feel temporarily better, but then feel even worse when faced once again with the need for actual action in their lives.

Respondents also reported that not addressing their low levels of confidence caused them to waste their money by:

·      Impulse buying.

·      Over-spending on food.

·      Shopping to escape boredom or anxiety.

·      Making unnecessary purchases and then not returning them.

·      Spending on distracting experiences.

·      Not asking for their worth.

·      Buying tools, systems or products that never get used.

·      Going on vacations to avoid stress at work and home.

I found out that when people act without confidence, they lose respect for themselves and also lose the respect of colleagues, peers, friends, family, and others they care about.

We vastly under-estimate

…the cost of our hesitation, doubt, fear and withdrawal from our lives. Each and every day when we make the choice not to act, there are repercussions we may never know the true cost of.  

Examples of this include: 

• Failing to have a difficult conversation. This can lead to a breech in a relationship, disconnect us from others, or create an obstacle to clear communication in the future.

Whether this occurs between us and a colleague, a superior, a customer, or a loved one, spouse or friend, the consequences are highly detrimental. Such divisions in relationship can be the cause of a variety of problems including accidents, lost value, lost productivity, lost sales, emotional stress, and organizational breakdown, as well as personal unhappiness, unnecessary conflict, territory battles, power plays, firings and resignations. Much of the above can be avoided by speaking up in a responsible and authentic way in a moment that counts.

• Failing to innovate when the same problem continues to recur. 

Despite the clear pain, confusion or inefficiency that is caused for others by a lack of innovation or growth, many of us still continue to do things the same way we've always done them, or the same way we were told to do them, or that our parents did them, or the way that policy dictates that we do them, or the way our predecessors have done them before. This is a common hidden burden and cost to individuals, families and entire organizations that can be alleviated by the confidence to experiment, explore and take initiative.

• Failing to acknowledge and share our talents and strengths.

Keeping the best of ourselves hidden because we feel too vulnerable to share the most important and passionate parts of ourselves is detrimental to our personal well-being and fulfillment, as well as a grave loss to the organizations in which we work. Products, services, relationships, insights and destinies that we could facilitate or provide go undiscovered when we keep the best of ourselves hidden inside.

• Failing to attend to our own health. 

This can lead to irretrievable losses of opportunity and service and can shatter family and organizational stability. When we withdraw, ignore or deny the care that we ourselves require to stay healthy and contribute our best to the world, the cost can be immeasurable.

Building confidence is a science and an art that is easily done with the right guidance, examples, atmosphere and education. 

The final offer 

This course is a starting point for how to coach yourself in the direction of action rather than avoidance and anxiety.

The cost that is incurred from failing to act—in the instances described above alone—far outweigh the actual effort that is required to face our lives as they are. 

I’ve created an incredibly affordable educational action series that you can take as gently or passionately as you wish. It’s helped many people develop their ability to live their real lives.

I hope you’ll say YES!