in-need of words of wisdom

Question
i recently just turned 18, and all i want to do is play hockey! i graduated a few months ago not sure about what i want to do, but nothing interests me but hockey. i have been playing off and on since i was 5 years of age, and haven't played any rep teams, but many people tell me i have natural talent. i find it a little  difficult trying to get motivated to go try out for a team. i put all my time into hockey, it's the only thing that seems to make me a happy person, and i am planing on trying out for Jr. A or Jr. B next season, and i would appreciate if you could lay out some helping info or some confident words to help me with the game and motivation.

Answer
Curtis,

What I am about to tell you is something that took me 25 years to learn and I wish I has some tell me this when I was 18, things might have been different for me back them.  Here go!

We are born with only two things...the fear of noise and the fear of falling.  Everything else we learn from our 5 senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting). Now, as we get older we make decisions in life by accessing these 5 senses to help us make the right and wrong decisions.  Well, as we go through life we always have people in our lives that tell us that we can or we can't do it or get what we want out of life.

Generally I call those types of people "Dream Stealers."  They suck the life and drive out of you.  You know them; they are generally the one's that laugh at your ideas.  What you need to do is surround yourself with people that will tell you to move you behind when you don't want too.  Those are the real true support people.  A support person isn't a person that says it's ok to fail.  You know them, they are the one's that have also tried it and they could make it and if they couldn't make it...you will not be able to make it as well.  They are every where!

It's bad enough that we place walls in front of us to keep us from getting what we want.  You know those walls...its call Procrastination.  It comes in all kinds of forms.  From not getting out of bed because you are tired, to putting off things that you know should be done, but you want to do them later.  Later becomes days and then years!

They are all mental walls and they are just a physical as the real thing.  Walls are built to keep us out.  But, if we allow ourselves to not get what we want, it might as well be a physical wall that we keep running into, day after day, not going anywhere.

So how do we over comes those walls.  First, we need to have a "shift"!  Remember, we are born with only two things, everything else we learn from our senses.  Well, these things we learn are really called "baggage" We carry all of this baggage with us as we go through life.

Here's an example of this....

Let say you and your family has been living at your current house for the last 20 years.  But you guys really wanted to buy the neighbors' house years ago because you liked the back yard.  But you guys did the best you could, trying to keep up with the Jones' next door.  So what, you have a couple of bald spots in the grass.  So what, you have several plants in the backyard that have died.  They have to die sooner or later!

You look over at the neighbors yard and they have the perfect yard.  The only thing you can say is, wow!  Then one day the house goes on the market and your dad buys the house and you guys move over next door and now you have the perfect backyard.  The whole family laughs at the stuoop next door who buys your old house....it's a backyard hell hole!

Then one day you are relaxing in the back and you feel like you need a good laugh so you look over the fence to look at your old backyard.  To your disbelief, the new neighbor has put in a pool with a water fall and a putting green with a flag.  So you look back at your "Dream" backyard and a couple of plants are dead and now you have several bald spots in the grass.

So what has changed?  Nothing, you took all of your mental baggage with you to the new house and set up camp.  Everything will be the same!  So how do you make that change?  Here it comes...are you ready?  You just do it!  If it needs fixing, you fix it!  If it needs love, you love it!

Make sure that you always take care of the relationships that you have.  How you treat your car is pretty much how you treat the relationship you have with other people and visa versa.  How you treat one thing is how you will treat the other thing.  Why?  Because that抯 the only thing you know.  

If you are a slob in your bedroom and stuff is everywhere, then there is a good chance that the inside of your car looks the same.  Get it!  You can have relationships with just about anything.  How your treat the ones close to you is pretty much how you will treat everything else.

In closing, don't ever be afraid to take the next step.  Stepping out side of your comfort zone always feels funny and sometimes scary.  But with stepping out of your comfort zone only comes big rewards!

Good luck!
Head coach
www.passthepuck.net