Remember how great your “A-Game” once was? Remember how you felt in control and really enjoyed what you were doing, whether in work or in your personal life? Yeah, we’re talking about that quality of life were you’ve achieved that sense of mastery, enjoyment and free flow, where everything seems to just line up for you - that effortless zone of achievement and happiness that makes it all happen the way it should happen.For a lot of guys, before they know it, they’ve lost their game. Or maybe they’ve never had it.

Whatever the case, bringing your “A-Game” back to your life will help drive you past feeling unmotivated and uninspired by your life. Life is way too short for a "B-Game."Bringing your “A-Game” back is about facing what needs to be faced in your life. It’s about summoning up the strength to burn out the barriers that are right in front of you that prevent your forward motion. It's about taking responsibility for your self, your success and your own happiness, and taking the actions needed to optimize yourself, your life and your relationships.Consider these possible barriers to losing your “A-Game”:

• Losing focus on what your values or goals are

• Losing your sense of self - “Who am I anymore?” (e.g. the midlife - or quarterlife - crisis)

• Avoiding anger or other negative feelings that, if dealt with, can push you through back to playing ball on the “A-Game” field

• You’ve been job hopping, unsatisfied by your work, or unstimulated by what you’re doing to earn money

• You feel blue, de-energized, lazy or shiftless a lot

• You’re angry, or just plain irritable, most of the time with others who don’t deserve to get it from you

• You are dwelling in the “it sucks to be me” state, and are pissed when others are enjoying themselves.

Setting an action plan for Bringing Your “A-Game” Back is important. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Where do I really want to be in my life? In my job? In my health? In my marriage or relationship?

2. Be specific: what does that look like? Write down the images, thoughts, ideas or draw pictures/make a collage about what that looks like in your head. Communicate it to yourself before you can clearly communicate it with anyone else, including your partner.

3. Identify the barriers to those changes: stress? depression? money? fear? lack of support from others? There are always barriers, so becoming clear on those things are important, as they tend to be a bit out of our daily consciousness.

4. Design ways to overcome those barriers: how will you figure out what it will take to conquer those things - do you need exercise? More money? More time? More communication from someone? Counseling? Time management? It could be more than one of these things you need.

5. Rank and prioritize those things that need your attention and resources. Set a reasonable time frame in which to chunk off small “baby step” goals, and then commit to the small goals every so often - once or twice a week, once a month. Remember: achieving the smaller goals, en route to the larger one, is the path to success, not chewing off a huge goal and then disappointing yourself.

Bringing your “A-Game” back will take some time, but with effort, diligence, patience and foresight, you’ll be getting back to the happy flow of your life that you’ve been missing all this time.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Men’s counseling , or if counseling might be right for you, please feel free to contact me directly or visit our Men’s counseling section for more information.