All young players have goals and dreams. Whether its the NHL, NCAA, Major Junior or something else, we all had dreams and goals we thought about when we were young.
Year by year, people give up those dreams and goals. Some find new dreams. Most find the path to their goals too difficult to navigate or too hard to achieve. Some stay on their path and they move forward, the few who do always do one thing, the same exact thing.
They take one step forward. One step at a time.
Sometimes that step may take a week to make, sometimes it may take a year or two or three, but it is one step toward taking another step.
If you can not visualize what I am talking about then you have not set out on creating a path for yourself. Paths wind, and twist, and take you out of the way of your final destination from time to time, but every path and every journey requires that you simply take the next step.
Too many players talk about the final destination. Where they want their hopes and dreams to take them without actually developing a plan to get there.
One step forward, focus on that. Focus on where you are and how you will get to the next immediate advancement benchmark.
Now when I say advancement benchmark, I am not talking about the next level up from where you currently play necessarily.
I worked with a player last year who set a goal of leading his league in scoring. By setting that goal he knew that people at the next level would be interested in him. Sure enough, he dominated, won the scoring title and is now playing at a higher level. He has the same goal for this year, and is in the top 5 in his league in scoring with two games in hand. People from the next level are paying attention.
Before those goals were set though, there was another goal. Gain 12 pounds of muscle over the summer by eating right and spending more time in the gym.
Before he successfully put on that 12 pounds of muscle though he had to find a way to make time to be able to make that happen. He got a job at the gym that allowed him to work out for free and reach his gain goals.
When you trace back successful players, you will see a set of advancement benchmarks. Not all of them pertain to something taking place on the ice.
Planning each and every step is a critical process. Simply showing up is not enough. Showing up is what the pretenders do. Its not what the majority of us who have to work hard do.
When you are ready to plan the next step, I look forward to discussing it with you.
Joseph Kolodziej – Adviser
