There are many places on the Bigger Game Board where you can begin playing. Sustainability is the square you go to when you want to think about making sure your game survives and thrives over many years—and you with it. If the Gulp! square is where you go to conquer fear, this is where you go to conquer, or at least fend off, the ravages of time and the changes that come with it.

Markets change. The economy rises and falls. Consumer tastes fluctuate. Public opinion shifts. New technologies arise. Calamities and disasters create need where it may not have existed before. You change too, whether because of age, health problems, a different perspective, or a new and more compelling purpose. The Sustainability square is your place for pondering what you can do to stay in the game, whatever your game may be. There’s no right answer, only the answer that the square awakens in you. You may even decide that it’s time to change the game completely.

This is where you come up with strategies for victory, playing like a grand master in chess who looks beyond the next move to the next and the next and the next. This is about maintaining and building upon what you’ve accomplished so far. The questions you ask here run long and deep, both personal and professional:

• What do I need to do to ensure that what I’ve built will endure beyond my time on this earth?
• What skills do I need to build so I can keep playing my bigger game?
• How do I build my physical, mental, and emotional strength so that I’m around to enjoy the fruits of my labor and to keep my bigger game nurtured and growing?

One of the keys to staying in the game and keeping your game going is sustaining a high level of passion and commitment. Every day ask yourself where you are in your game, and look at your level of passion for it. If the thrill is gone, maybe you need to up your game or find another one altogether.

More to come-
Rick