Happy New Year everybody!
Wow what an exciting time of year. One for new opportunities and dreams of growth! In order to fulfil your dreams it's crucial to have an in depth understanding of the balance between emotion and purpose.
You see it every year with New Year’s resolutions... People’s intentions are noble, valid, and inspiring, but the statistics show that making emotional decisions lead to short term results and long-term failure. According to Forbes magazine citing research from the University of Scranton, only 8% of people actually achieve their New Year’s resolution. What’s the missing link?
Wisdom is sifting through the plethora of emotions. You see, as humans we are such emotional beings that thrive on feeling and being part of communities that ignite our senses. The problem? Emotions are short term reactions to an external stimulus. They fade, even go away if we don’t continually feed them.
The solution? How about every day we get to watch NFL Wild Card Weekend and even better let’s watch it live, so we can hear every sound, be amongst fans and feel the incredible energy in the building. That would be awesome but I even think that would get old. You see, that’s the other problem of living your life based on emotions. After a while, it just doesn’t’ do if for you anymore, it just gets tiring. Emotion runs out, we don’t have the wisdom do sift through it, understand it and we give up. 92% of us do. Just imagine the untapped talent. Unbelievable.
The solution? Jon Gordon calls it the Seed. For Christmas this year, my 4 kids dug into their hearts and bought me the best gift ever, a book. They each put a special note of thanks and inspiration inside the front cover wishing me Merry Christmas, it was very special. That book is called “The Seed” and author Jon Gordon navigates through a story of a young man who’s lost his love for his job and is challenged by his boss to either find it or move on with a different company or a whole new career.
He gives the young man a seed and a week off with the challenge to figure out where he was going to plant it. The book renewed my perspective on the difference between happiness and joy and in honour of my Costa Rican friends helped remind me to find my “Pura Vida”, my way of life that produces the greatest amount of joy. Guess what you find? Wisdom to find your purpose.
You see, most people tend to focus on the end result, a goal of some kind. Is that purpose? No, because ultimately the journey to the goal gets too hard and we quit, just like our New Year’s resolutions. But you see, there is a silver lining. Purpose is delivered through the virtue of wisdom through the process of fighting for that goal.
The purpose is in the process, it hides in obscurity in the shadow of the bright lights of the goal. And guess what? If we just focused on enjoying the work to achieve the goal, layer it down, reflect on it, purpose will find you. That’s what’s so amazing.
So how can we apply these lessons to on-ice movement, skill and life performance? Goal setting is important but the love of the process in which it is achieved is purpose. Some players just don’t make the AAA team, but I can bet you that a player with purpose who tries out and makes an A team is living their “Pura Vida”. They are pure joy, because their purpose drives their emotions, not the other way around.
So, if you’re looking to find your “Pura Vida” this new year, get around coaches with wisdom that teach with purpose, and that are just as interested in your growth off the ice as on it. At PS, we call this life performance and I feel so blessed to have been one of the many sparks needed to build a community of athletes and coaches all over the world through our method of movement and skill to find their purpose.
The NHL? Sure, it’s a ton of fun working with the best players in the world but nothing, I mean nothing, gives me more joy than hearing about a former student that is doing amazing things in their life, whether on the ice or off, and credits some of that growth to being part of the PS Family. That’s part of our purpose and we love it. For you today, use this New Year as a catalyst to go find yours!
“Pura Vida” baby! Can’t wait to hear all about it!
