Chapter 01: The Game of Life and How to Play It - Florence Scovel Shinn

Life is hard. And for some of us, it seems to be getting harder by the day. Florence says we feel this way because we don't understand that life is a game. And one cannot succeed at this game without understanding the spiritual laws governing the game. 

She says these rules are found in the Bible, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. First rule of the game of life is that it is a game of giving and receiving. "Whatever man sends out in deed or word will return to him; what he gives he will receive." additionally, the imagination plays a big part in whether man succeeds or fails in the game of life. 

Train your mind to image the wonderful things of life (health, wealth, love, friends, etc.) and you will attract these things. 

 Florence says the mind has three departments, the subconscious (power without direction - no control), the conscious (carnal mind. sees life as it appears to be - death, disaster, sickness, starvation - and transmits these messages to the subconscious) and the superconscious (the god mind - the realm of perfect ideas. the divine design). 

The author says there is a divine design for each person. "There is a place that you are to fill, and no one else can fill, something you are to do that no one else can do. It flashes across the conscious mind as an unattainable ideal - something too good to be true.” 

This divine design, Florence says, is what Jesus was referring to when he said, "Seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you... the kingdom is within man."

She quotes Jesus again when he said, "By your words you are justified and by your words you are condemned"

This signifies the importance of the words you think silently and the words you speak out loud. They shape the life you experience in the physical realm. Every word you speak and think is registered in your subconscious mind, whether you're joking or speaking out of anger. Every word is shaping the reality you experience. 

If you want to start experiencing your best life, start following your intuition. Trust your gut instinct. Trust your hunch. In-tuition means to be taught from within.  Never violate a hunch. 

She offers this affirmation to be spoken our loud daily, "Infinite spirit, open the way for great abundance for me. I am an irresistible magnet for all that belongs to me by divine right."

She quotes the Bible again, "Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you." There is plenty of abundance for all people, and it can only be brought into manifestation through desire, faith and the spoken word. This is how you ask, by having a desire, faith and speaking about what you want, asking through your words and your thoughts. 

She says, "Nothing stands between man and his highest ideals and every desire of his heart, but doubt and fear. When man can wish without worrying, every desire will be instantly fulfilled."

As soon as you learn to substitute fear for faith, things will start looking up for you. Fear is actually a form of faith, but in the wrong direction. When you're fearful, you're actually believing more in evil than good. Switch that around. Start believing more in good. Start having faith that your desires will be fulfilled. 

These are the fears that block your blessings: fear of lack, fear of failure, fear of sickness, fear of loss, and a feeling of insecurity on some plane. Notice the similarities between this list and the 6 fears in Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich?

Most things we worry about never happen anyway. So, worry is just wasted energy that could have been better invested in thinking, speaking and acting positively towards your desires.