A winter sport played well into June…that’s enough to play with your “head.” The first game of the National Hockey League Stanley Cup Finals were played last night in Chicago. It was Chicago Blackhawks and the Boston Bruins. You might think: “What do I care! I don’t follow hockey or even know what it is!”

Bear with me and I’ll tie it to business and money in a second.

The first thing that might come to mind is the tragedy that Boston recently went through. “Boston Strong” was the mantra. That alone put Boston in a superior “mental state” and automatically put Chicago in a “submissive mental state.” It had to. I know this is The Finals and they are the “best of the best” in the league, professionally, but they are human.

Now let’s take the story further. Early in the second period, there are three periods (not counting overtime) in the finals), the Hawks were down 2-0. Hockey is like Football (soccer)…you don’t usually get more than 3-4 scores in the whole game combined. You are still asking what this has to do with business…hang on! The score progressed to 3-1 by the third and last period…Hawks still losing. The hitting was incredible. Body slams…checks into the wall, tempers are flying. The most fast paced aggressive game I have seen in my life.

Ok, Hawk fans, it’s the first game, don’t panic… and there still are potentially six more games. It would be easy to have the Hawks just say: “We’ll get ‘em next game. Hey…we still made it all the way here and we still get our nice rings and bonuses!”

What would it take to win?

Not only did the Hawks tie up the game, but the match went to an almost unprecedented triple overtime. This meant the two teams skated for 5 hours, trying to get just one goal to win it.  At approximately Midnight, Chicago time, an exhausted Blackhawk team scored the winning goal. All 22,000 fans, exhausted as well, went into pure pandemonium. It was at a time that even the fans were saying: “Please…just someone score…we will get them next time!”

Success

This game was fought in the player’s heads. It was acted out on the ice, but the game was fought mentally. They overcame defeat mentally. Defeat was not an option. Giving up was not an option. They were going to win or fall over trying. Okay, now to you:

What would happen if you approached your own day the same way? This actually happens every single day in your life. Somebody is GOING to win…but will it be you?

When you wake up in the morning, what do you usually say: “It’s Thursday, only one more day until the weekend” or do you say:”Its Thursday, I only have one more day to get that deal, save that extra money, impress my boss this week.”

Do you wake up in the morning and say: “I’ve already had a good year…time to relax a little, I deserve it, I work hard,” and you slip into a comfort zone…or are you the guy that says:”I have already had a great year…I have six more months to make it incredible!”

The BEST part is YOU get to CHOOSE!

Every day you get the chance to program your mind and decide what kind of day it will be. You really do! Make it a great day…don’t waste this day. Try it. You might be surprised.