My mom told me the other day that I should use this time away from school to my advantage. She says a lot of kids in college don't have time to read books other than the books they're required to read, so why not start reading more every day? I love to read; Mom always knows best. And the book I just started to read changed my life in only a few pages. Good advice, Mom. On the cover, this book says, "Acquire the secrets of success...achieve everything you've always wanted: personal property, financial security, power and influence, the ideal job, satisfying relationships, a rewarding and enjoyable life." Sounds cheesy, right? It almost sounds like an infomercial, guaranteeing you immediate happiness in your life if you just buy this amazing new product: a potato skinning machine that doubles as a margarita maker. My mom would love that...for the record, margarita makers always make everything better. If there was a Snuggie with a built in, portable margarita maker, I'm sure it would sell like crazy. Anyway, that was a weird tangent I just went off on...But I also thought the book looked cheesy when I first looked at it. How is a book going to tell me how to succeed? Do I need a book to tell me how to achieve everything I've always wanted? What kind of advice can this doctor writing this book give to a hockey player like me? Honestly, within the first few pages, it made me realize that there's something wrong with the way I think a lot of the time. I need to think positively and destroy my negative thoughts before they become monsters, I need to act confidently to think confidently, and I need to realize that the thinking that guides my intelligence is much more important than how much intelligence I have. Those are only a few of the things I learned from the first 50 pages of this book. How successful someone is basically boils down to how they think and how their attitude rubs off on other people. It's not about how much someone knows; it's about how they work with people and how much motivation they have to work hard. It's an awesome book that has great examples of people who have trouble thinking, like I sometimes do, and it guides you through how some of these people fix their problems, usually by simply changing the way they think...The mind is a powerful thing, and these are all lessons I think I've learned in some capacity this year, knowingly or not. It's just cool to read about them.
So, anyway, in a roundabout sort of way, I've come to my point. After reading this book for about an hour, I realized something that bothers me. There have been a lot of people who have asked me how my season went since I got home. How many people care about what I'm doing is awesome. I love how many people are curious about my experiences. But I think the way I've answered most people is bad. I seem to always start my response to that question with, "Well, it was definitely an interesting year, not the year I was expecting to have." I sort of revert into this negative response mode, where I start my answer with a negative statement, and it all sort of seems negative from there, like I didn't truly enjoy what I did this year. But I did enjoy what I did this year. A lot. I think my response is affected by my subconscious thinking. I tend to think automatically that people want to hear how bad my experience was because it's such a unique thing I'm doing, at least around here. And I automatically think people look down on what I'm doing because they believe I should be in college, so I start my response negatively to please those people who, my mind is telling me, are whispering behind my back about how they were right, that I should've just gone to college. The mind is a really weird thing. And maybe it's just my mind. I don't know. But I need to fix that with better thinking. I need to be confident that I chose this path for a reason, and I need to remember all the positives this season, and dispel the negatives. From now on, anyone who asks me how my season was, I'm going to start my answer with, "Well, it was a pretty amazing year, one that I'll never forget." It sounds much more positive, and I think it will better help me explain to people how amazing this season really was for me.
I can't wait to keep reading this book! It changed the way I think in one day. Now, I just need to keep thinking like this. By the way, the book is "The Magic of Thinking Big" by Dr. David Schwartz.
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