About seven years ago I decided to walk away from my fancy corporate job to do something of more purpose. Up until that point, I was pretty sure that I was just “;Victim Of The World.”; Then I was introduced to A Course in Miracles and numerous other universal principles that all said the same thing- that I was in control. For the first time ever, I learned that my thoughts created my reality and that what I felt internally was exactly what showed up for me externally.
I decided to make it my mission to create a tool that explained just that and was accessible to the masses. It showed up as a board game. Yeah, it surprised me too. Yet, because it was experiential, people were willing to step out of their comfort zones and start seeing what was driving them. I quit that job in 2001 and have been working towards Shift’s mission, to remind as many people as possible that we are love and loved, ever since. Playing the game in my daily life and remembering to choose love in every moment has turned out to be the ultimate exercise in working my mental muscles.
I’ve been playing at shifting the game and have certainly had my opportunities to feel like the game was playing me. And now, I’m starting to play my hand a very different way by stepping into a whole new level of trust and letting go. Every day I’m reminded that one small shift in thought can shift my life. What do you think? Can a game change your life?
Shift is a psychological game, in the sense that we, through self-examination and laughter, can begin to understand where our thoughts are coming from and the power they hold. In fact, we have no neutral thoughts. All of our thoughts come from love or fear and once we are able to recognize where our thoughts come from, we can further understand where our thoughts are taking us.
The point of the game is to move from fear to love, and drop your defenses. Our defenses are what we do, not what we are: it’s just our behavior. In order to drop our defenses, we must be able to recognize when we have acted as those defenses, and, when we have not. This, in turn, can show us why we use those defenses, and why we don’t need to at all.
The reason I created this game is simple. I want to remind you that you can control your thoughts once you are aware of what you are thinking. What you believe is exactly what you will experience. If after playing this game, you start seeing where your thoughts are coming from then we all win. And, if you can actually change those thoughts that hold you back, can you imagine what we will be able to shift?
Nicole Casanova is the CEO, visionary-extraordinaire, and the heart behind Shift. She started her days in a Jewish/Italian family in sunny Miami, Florida. After a stint as honor student, president of this and that, and Miami Beach party girl, Nicole went off to study Communications at Florida State University. From there the eternally driven Ms. Casanova trekked out to Boulder, Colorado to get her Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications by 22. Because her Master's thesis (this was 1995 when her professors wondered if she'd go door to door signing people up for the World Wide Web) was on Targeted Marketing on the Web, Nicole's natural next step was to seek fortune and challenge in San Francisco's world of Internet business. She spent the next six years doing Business Development and selling Internet Advertising for Homestore, Lycos and Mypoints.
Fortune smiled upon her and all three companies went public, the stocks climbed and the Venture Capitalists increased their ad budgets. In one year Nicole exceeded her quota by $6.5 million dollars while her bonus was 20%. She had so much business that she didn't have time to put in her $10k plus expense reports or make sure her commissions where correct. She secretly hired an assistant to help her work more than 80 hours a week so she could gather more of the contracts and dollars that seemed to be falling from the sky. At 25 her portfolio proudly stated, baby you're a millionaire. Life was good. Many would agree, Nicole Casanova was the picture of success.
Nicole Casanova was also really good at feeling not good enough. Do you see the correlation between star student and sales person? She sought all she could outside herself to feel good enough. At the same point, Nicole was introduced to A Course in Miracles and began studying the concepts of self-awareness. She became more and more aware that she couldn't blame her destructive ways on her belief that she was a "victim of the world." Once she finally got that she was responsible and that her motto, "Everything in excess" was less than healthy, Nicole recognized that she had another calling, to convey these same lessons to as many people as possible. The voice grew louder and louder until she left the Internet and her hectic life in San Francisco to answer that call.
Three plus years later it showed up as a company called Exponential Growth. The core product, Shift, is a board game that helps people become more aware of why they behave the way they do. The game teaches people that their perceptions are their reality and that only they have the power to shift their thoughts from Fear to Love. Shift's message translates equally well to friends, families, partners and even support groups, corporations and organizations. Shift's mission is to reach as many people as possible and remind them that they are loved.
Nicole currently lives among the stunning mountains of Boulder, CO and is continually thankful for the journey that has brought her here and the excitement of the path ahead. She lives and loves her three dogs that total less than 25 pounds and her husband, whose name, ironically, means change in Korean.
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