Every year, the AHL comes out with a graphic that I think every kid around the world should see. Here it is below:
This graphic represents the number and percentage of players that played in the NHL last season who at one point in their professional career played in the AHL.
Every team building presentation I give, I show this graphic. Every motivational speech I give, I show this graphic. Every time I speak with a kid in a mentorship capacity, I show this graphic.
Why?
Because I think it represents the most important characteristic of a professional hockey player – or anyone really that is great at what they do…
GRIT.
Kids, take a look at the 87% percent smack in the middle of the graphic. This percentage represents all of the players that played in the NHL last year who at one point in their career spent time in the AHL.
What does that mean?
That means that almost 9 out of 10 players that played in the NHL last year – at one point in their career – got cut.
They were told they weren’t good enough. They were told to go ride a bus. They were told to go down to a lower level, get better, and the big club will call you up when they felt you were ready.
Before I saw this yearly graphic for the first time in 2018, when I thought of an NHL hockey player, I always thought of talent. I thought of their skill, their highlights, and the moments they made you jump out of your seat.
Not now.
Now, when I think of an NHL hockey player, I think of grit. I think of resilience. I think of a never-die-attitude and an honest, real, sincere commitment to their dreams of playing in the National Hockey League.
It’s amazing how many players I’ve been around, in so many capacities, who had NHL level talent that never made it. A lot of what was missing had to do with a lack of resilience. When it got hard, they took the easy way out.
They blamed other people. They blamed injuries. They blamed circumstances. They blamed everything and everybody except the one person that had the biggest stake in their careers and dreams.
Themselves.
Because that’s the easy thing to do.
The ones who made it – at the times of adversity – it wasn’t blame. It was time to look in the mirror. It was time to ask themselves what they can do to be better to make sure they did everything in their power…everything in their power…to reach their goals and realize their dreams.
They made a choice to look at the hard in the eye and said “bring it”.
Life is all about choices. So many times in our lives we are faced with a fork in the road when things get tough. Which way do we go? Do we take the easy way out? Or do we take a long, hard look at the hard way that we know is going to get us to our dreams and get after it.
It’s so damn easy to choose short term comfort instead of thinking about long term pain and gain when things get hard. Why?
It’s comfortable.
Blaming is comfortable. Quitting is comfortable. Asking “why me” and throwing a pity party is comfortable.
But the best? They have a unique understanding that they can only control what they can control and they choose to work through the discomfort.
Because what’s more important…
The things that happen to us or the way we choose to see and react to the things that happen to us?
Perspective is a powerful thing. Finding a positive in every situation is a superpower. It’s something my parents instilled in me when I was young. When I live by it – I thrive. When I choose not to – I am not even close to the best version of myself. And at some point, always, I kick myself for not finding the lesson or the good in the hard and uncomfortable situations life throw my way.
If I had a guess, there’s probably something hard in your life right now and it might be time for a perspective check.
How are you choosing to see it? And how are you going to react to it?
What we do in the hard times will define us. And I’m not talking about how other people will define us. That doesn’t matter.
I’m talking about how we are going to define and see ourselves. How much are we going to love what we see when we look in the mirror at the end of the day and evaluate the man or woman looking back at us? That look is defined by the choices that we make, particularly in the times of adversity.
Bison are the only animals that when a storm is coming – they don’t run away from it. They run into it and face it head on.
And because of that, they spend less time in the suck. As opposed to other animals that try to run away from it but end up getting stuck in the suck because you can’t outrun a storm.
What a great metaphor for dealing with fear. By facing it head on, you spend less time with it. When you try to run from it, fear has a way of always catching you and keeping you from being the best version of who you want to be.
Choose to run into the hard. Choose to embrace the fear. Understand that it’s all part of a process to make you unstoppable.
Kids – I promise you adversity is a gift if you choose to see it that way. It’s an opportunity to conquer your doubts and your fears in disguise. And the adversity that you hit now is only going to help you to build the mental toughness and resilience that’s necessary to be great when the harder things get even harder as you get older.
By choosing to see the hard as a gift – and working your way through it – you are putting yourself into a position to be in the 87% of players with grit that realized their dreams.
