What if life is not something happening to you?

What if your words, expectations, imagination, and habits are quietly shaping what happens next?

Florence Scovel Shinn’s The Game of Life and How to Play It is one of the foundational classics behind today’s language of manifestation, Law of Attraction, affirmations, abundance, visualization, and spiritual success—but Shinn gives these ideas an unmistakably biblical and almost magical edge.

Her premise is simple: Life is a game governed by spiritual laws. Learn the laws, and you can play differently.

What you continually rehearse in your mind can begin shaping the life around you.

Drawing from Scripture, metaphysics, New Thought, and unforgettable real-life examples, Shinn teaches listeners how to stop feeding anxiety, resentment, scarcity, and defeat—and begin directing their attention toward faith, opportunity, love, prosperity, and what she calls the Divine Design for your life.

Nearly a century after its publication, the book feels strangely built for 2026.

For the college student wondering what comes next.

For the mother holding together a household while trying not to lose herself inside the routine.

For anyone staring at money problems, relationship stress, career uncertainty, or a future that refuses to reveal itself.

Shinn’s answer is not simply “think positive.”It is: watch your words, guard your imagination, expect good, act in faith, and stop spiritually rehearsing the life you do not want.

Part Christian mysticism, part practical psychology, part metaphysical instruction, The Game of Life and How to Play It is a compact manual for anyone fascinated by the Law of Attraction, manifestation, abundance thinking, affirmations, New Thought, Neville Goddard, Joseph Murphy, prosperity consciousness, and the hidden power of the mind.

You are already playing the game.

The question is whether you know the rules.