For all the kids out there that have hopes and dreams of playing high level hockey, this one piece of advice that my dad gave me when I was younger really helped me to accomplish my goals and reach my dreams within the game. That piece of advice was a single question:
What are you doing when nobody's looking?
It's really easy to work your hardest when the lights are on and everybody's watching. But the habits that are instilled in practice, when you're doing the work, when nobody's watching and the lights are off, that's what performs during the game.
You can't just turn it on and off when the lights are the brightest.
That piece of advice my dad gave me really fueled me to work my hardest in the shadows. It motivated me to try to do one more than my peers. To never take a day off. To really work my hardest to build the habits necessary to compete when the lights shone the brightest.
I’m 5’4” and became a captain and 100 point scorer at a top hockey program in the country because of the work I did when nobody was looking. If I can do it, so can you.
So what are you doing when nobody's looking?