The Career Killer

The other night I overheard these two young hockey players talking, they must have been around 15 or 16, close to their OHL draft year, and the one boy said to the other “…that he knew he was rated pretty high based on the last scouting report…” and that “ he felt pretty comfortable that he was going to get selected in the first couple rounds and would be playing in the OHL next year.”

I chuckled to myself and shot a half smile at the boys as I walked on by. It brought back memories when I thought I had it made. Hmmm, little did I know what was in store for me!

Now, for the record I don’t know either of the boys, but I can tell you that someone is setting themselves up for failure.

See the thing is, and I’m saying this from experience, when people reach a point in their sport or careers where they start feeling comfortable, where they take their foot off the gas and try to “maintain” where they’re at, that’s typically when the wheels fall off!

You might think you can coast because the future, from your perspective, looks and feels like you’re in a good spot…well that’s when life comes out of left field with a big Louisville Slugger kiss to the face!

That mindset actually starts to move you backwards rather than forwards … why?

Because there are others out there who continually show up with an attitude and work ethic that they want to get better than they were yesterday. They know that “rankings and ratings” mean nothing.

Those people will wind up passing that young man who decided to coast very quickly.

See that young man is not committed to the process. He probably hasn’t faced much adversity because he was always on a great team or has always been a player that got by on talent.

He doesn’t understand that there is never going to be a point where you’ve “made it.”

I’ve seen this and experienced it myself…complacency… It’s a choice.

It’s also one of the biggest career killers out there!