Having a Winning Attitude

Yesterday was the first day of my son’s hockey season. This will be his second year and what a difference a year makes. In his first year, he was 8 years old and didn’t move around much on the ice as he never played hockey before and didn't know where to go. He was circled around by all of the other players who played 2 to 4 years at this stage.

It would be easy to be dejected and say it’s too hard, all the other kids are better. The coach actually encouraged him by giving him the game puck and being named as the player of the game for skating so hard. I didn’t see him skate hard, but that thought in his head by the coach motivated him to skate hard at practice and at the next game. He wanted to skate as much as he can to improve and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. By the end of the season, he was skating faster than ½ of the other players and had scored two goals, which was pretty impressive. Some other players who played 2 or 3 years are still trying to score their first goal.

After the season was over, he asked for summer hockey practice lessons to keep him sharp, but I held him back to play some soccer and then do some hockey after soccer season ended.

Back to the current season...

In the 1^st game, he almost scored his first goal of the season. I hear people say that kids should just have fun and winning isn’t that important. That would be the wrong mindset to give any child. I want him to win. If the team loses, then he needs to learn how to accept a loss and improve on the next game. He is happy when the team wins and knows that if the team didn’t win, that they should try harder the next time.

I don’t expect my son to become a star player and to play in the big leagues. He’s learning an important lesson in putting hard work into practice and games and that could result in a victory. This is teaching me that I should have the same winning attitude in running my online business. Don’t quit. Keep trying week after week. Practice and practice doing until it becomes second nature. This is my 2^nd week in WA and my coach, Kyle is telling me that I’m the player of the game, that I can be successful. With that in my head, it’s time to get to work!