The Game of Adversity Summary

Emir Zecovic | Posted on May 22, 2018 |

6 min read ⌚

8 Practices to overcome adversity

Imagine that you have to go on a trip on an isolated island. Which will be the 5 main things you’ll need to take with you?

And now, let’s dive together in a classical analogy: think about this book as it was your knapsack for a trip like this. What do you expect to have in it? Scientifically explanations? Samples of life? Practical advice? Wordplays? Mindset’s games?

INTROSPECTION / THE GAME OF ADVERSITY

Pnew light failures and problems.

Lucky you! The Game of Adversity offers to the readers the whole package in order to obtain a great reading adventure in the journey about how to overcome adversity.

So let’s browse together some pages of this book and have a small journey through Nick DiNardo’s approaches.

But, first of all, it is mandatory for us to ask the following question: who is Nick DiNardo?

The Game of Adversity PDF Summary

So, let’s get back to Nick DiNardo. Entrepreneur. Consultant. And also a public speaker. During his career, he was focused especially on techniques to overcome adversity, personal growth, and education.

Most likely, his personal experiences were the main inspirational sources for his career choice. Life has taught him hard lessons, forced him to see opportunities in the most difficult moments. And that’s what makes this book even more credible and strongly connected to reality.

Not incidentally did I bring this topic into discussion. I anticipate your next question: what is this book all about?

The Game of Adversity is about me, and you, and any friend of yours. Or relatives. In fact, it is about each individual’s life, as it is: with great moments, but also challenging ones.

This book awakens in our subconscious those resources that wisely help us to understand life. To understand how to handle distress and difficulties. How to overcome adversity and use it to our advantage. How to put in new light failures and problems.

Nowadays, there is an abundance of self-help books which cover the whole existence. This one is more specific when it comes to what a person should do.

Life has its tough moments that we can’t neglect nor escape from them. However, authors like Nick DiNardo make the difference by sharing various tips for dealing with such concerns. This book summary presents only a small portion of the entire cake.

The readers will be utmostly thrilled by the stories and examples that in details clarify “The Game of Adversity”.

The problem-solving approach plays a pivotal role in the whole process. Nick DiNardo hopes that the day will come when we will handle challenging situations with sobriety and determination.

To be happier, to be better people, and to lead greater lives, we desperately need adversity just like a dying man in a desert needs water.

The book will take you gradually through all emotional levels.

“Your bike gets hit by a car?” This is just bad luck. But far from the worst thing in the world.

“No right hand”. I, personally, felt a pain in my stomach just thinking about this. But the next sentence is brilliant and brings the readers back to reality.

The goal is to make you see the way out from failures and also to reveal the hidden opportunities of any problem. The main tool is: to take you on a journey of diversity and help you experience different contexts. That’s how DiNardo explains the applicability of his advice.

Life is a game. If the game you have to play seems to be too challenging, that means you are a very good player.

That’s why you were assigned directly to the expert level. So, what do you have to do? Rephrase unluckily. Look at the full half of the glass in a rational way. Turn all bad things in your favor.

No more “10 easy steps to achieve success”. No more “5 ways to stand out”. Instead, you’ll find here 14 chapters of this adversity journey:

It all starts with adversity. DiNardo describes here three specific types of adversity:

Bad luck – car accident? You can’t control it
Bad choices – life is about the choices we make every day. Crossroads come in your path almost all the time
Hero’s journey – there is an ebb and flow in life. Hero’s journey is the golden standard for adversity. This is about defeating your own fears, limitations. It’s about setting challenging milestones for yourself.

The truth about handling a bad situation. “Handling adversity, and handle it well, is critical to channeling your experience to your personal advantage.”
Nurture, nature, and reality. Nurture versus nature? How big is the difference between them? Are these connected in any way?
The story of Louis Zamperini will help you understand this approach. This is not only a beautiful life story. This is about a kid who’s craving for attention. A story about transformation and how to be placed in the right spot.
The adversity pyramid. The premise of this chapter: the right skills in the right place for handling the right adversity. And there are 8 building blocks that help anyone handle adversity well:

Mindset
Process versus outcome
Focus on what you can control
Self-awareness
Clarity of purpose
Be grateful
Standing on the shoulders of giants
Be cool

The growth mindset. The 16 tenets Walsh’s coaching methodology may be important lessons for anyone. These may serve you as well as a framework for any activity in life.

“Exhibit a ferocious and intelligently applied work ethic directed at continual improvement.”

“Take pride in my effort separate from the results of that effort.”

“Deal appropriately with victory, defeat, adulation, and humiliation.”

The sanctity of process. “Small wins give you the confidence to keep going, to keep growing, and to get yourself closer to where you want to go.” This nugget gives you a pretty good clue about what you’ll find in this chapter.
The power of control. Exercise #4 player 1 completely captured my attention.
Give up or rephrase your failure? The analogy of the piano player with a video game player is brilliant. Best approach: you only were dropped in as Player 1. “Brainstorm a list of 10 things that are bothering you, and be honest […] start seeing where you can control the variables, and then get to work.”
The science of self-awareness

Two great exercises will help you understand better what self-awareness should mean for any of us.

The clarity of purpose

Life is not about getting from point A to point B. Adjust for the crosswind, to obstacles, barriers, and adversity that are part of the journey.

Standing on the shoulders of giants. You’ll leave this chapter with at least one main lesson well learned.

In a very real sense, most of our heroes are our heroes because we see our potential embedded inside them”

What it takes to be cool. Try to follow the 3 exercises from this chapter: creating a preparation plan, breathing, creating stakes. I bet that in the end, you’ll jump to this conclusion:

Preparation creates coolness.

The importance of feeling lucky. The right place to learn about the importance of gratitude. The reading will be even more challenging if you’ll pass the gratitude test and the “thank you” exercise.
Life, adversity, and the road ahead. What is life? This is probably the most common Socratic question we are tempted to ask ourselves from time to time.

Life is a tricky thing. Many people have their own views about what it means or what it is. […] life is more about doing our best to acquire wisdom

The thirty-day adversity challenge: this is a recap, schedule and practice chapter. Spend some extra moments to analyze the opportunity to improve yourself, your thoughts, and your mindset through these tips from Nick DiNardo. And then it’s time for some acknowledgments.

By reading this book, you’ll have the feeling that you are engaged in a fantastic game of thinking. You will “prepare” yourself for introspection. You will run through concepts and jump into reality. You’ll pass the ball of failures and catch one of the opportunities.

In this dynamic context you won’t be surprised not even for a moment by the many examples from sports you’ll find in Nick DiNardo’s book.