​Hockey: Just Go Out and Have Fun
Saturday afternoon, I happened to be driving through L.A. right before the King’s game. Am I a hockey fan. Nope. It’s not that I don’t like hockey. I have been to 2 professional games in my lifetime, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.
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Am I A Sports Fan?
You betcha! It’s just that professional-sports-wise, my number one
passion is the Los Angeles Dodgers. Why? Blame my Dad. My
Dad was a Dodger’s fan, and from the time I was little, he took
me to games. So, I grew up with the Dodger’s as a wonderful
part of my life and time with my Dad. I adore my Dad, so, I also
am passionate about the Dodgers. There is no better date than
Friday night at Dodger’s stadium for a game and fireworks.
And then, my number two team I root for is the UCLA Bruins. Having gone to school there, it is a pretty safe bet that I am a Bruin fan and will be forever and ever. I am a second-generation Bruin, and one of my son’s is a 3rd-generation Bruin, as is his wife. We won’t talk about that “other” school across town that my daughter went to.
Finally, since I love cycling, my third favorite sport to watch, largely on TV due to the economics of getting to the events, is cycling. I love when Tour season arrives and I can watch the Tour of California, Tour of Belgium, etc. and of course the Tour de France. It motivates
me watching these races. I get out on my bike and just “kill it” after having watched these riders give it all.
Skills and Prep
I think about how these riders trained and pushed themselves, honing their skills, prepping for the race, and the commitment to constantly strive for improvement. It motivates me to push really hard too when I am out there riding up hills, striving to do better and faster than yesterday, and thinking about working hard to make the hill seem easier next time I am out on it.
So, why did I start this article mentioning hockey and the Kings anyway? As I said, I was driving through Los Angeles slogging along very slowly on the freeway right before the Kings game. I had the radio on and they were doing a live broadcast from Staples Center, where the Kings were getting ready to play.
The commentator was talking about the “pre-warm-up” warm-up that was going on at the time. Apparently the Kings were out on the ice with a soccer ball. They were skating and playing with the ball and the object was to keep the ball up in the air and from touching the ice.
And the commentator was saying that it was completely wonderful watching the Kings out there. He said they appeared so relaxed and like they were just out there to have fun. He commented that they seemed to be really enjoying themselves.
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He then went on to talk about the only way one could do this, was to have the key ingredients that go into success:
•Skills
•Prep
Lessons Learned
I am thinking this is analogous to what all of us do every day. You have to hone your skills for whatever the task is. This is the practice over and over part. It's the constantly striving to be better part. This is what gives you the skills you need.
Then you have to prep. You have to plan and you have to think of all contingencies, what could go wrong, what could fail, have a plan B, and then you need to execute the plan. So the prep involves thinking about what you are trying to accomplish, what you need to do to accomplish it, and what are all the steps that are necessary to execute to accomplish the task. And learning from past mistakes and failures. Of course prep also involves evaluating the competition and using their weaknesses. Finally, prep also involves mentally thinking about the plan and the outcome. How it will look and feel when you are successful. It is about prepping mentally as well.
And then finally, if you have done the Skills and Prep, when the time comes, there is nothing better that you can do than have fun. If you have fun and love what it is that you are doing, if you are passionate about it, it somehow just seems to come out the very best. This is true of sports, relationships, and business.
I am certainly not a super athlete, but it certainly seems to me there are great lessons to be learned from sports that carry through in all areas of life. including business. So, go work on your skills, prep, and then have fun and reap the rewards!