Reading time 2 mins

A memory treasure hunt

This game is like a memory treasure hunt. You think back through some events and gather ‘treasures’, or special moments, from these. Then you use these treasures to plan ahead – to programme your expectations – so you experience them more frequently in the future.

You can play the game:

• With friends to have fun and to get to know one another better.
• With yourself explore memories and use these to plan an even better future.

How to play the 3 Things Game

From the past year select:

1. Three enjoyable moments – either with yourself or in company.
2. Three embarrassing moments – ones which you can now look back on and, at least, smile…
3. Three things you’d do differently if you could go back in time – and describe how you’d handle each of these second time around
4. Three things you thought were going to be daunting or difficult  – but in retrospect turned out to be easy peasy or, at least, not nearly as daunting as they’d appeared
5. Three successes – these can be tiny little achievements or big and impressive ones
6. Three things which, having gone through this list, you’re looking forward to in the next year!

If you’re playing as a group do it in rounds e.g. first each person picks one enjoyable event. Then each person picks a second one. And so on.  In this way each person’s answer is likely to inspire the others.

If you’re playing the game with yourself (or ‘alone’ if you prefer this term…) write down everything! Then add to the list over the coming weeks – so you’re not limited to three things per round – you can have many of them…

Winners all round

No losers in the game: everyone’s a winner because they get to feel good – and refresh or reframe (that’s the NLP bit) and relive good memories.

The game was invented by me, Reg Connolly, in December 2015 as a way of using pleasant memories, and useful insights, and successes to think ahead… with inspiration.