The Ride To The Rink - The Secret To Being Patient

Lee MJ Elias [0:08 - 5:02]: Hello, hockey goalies and skaters around the world. And welcome back to another edition of the Ride to the rink. It's Lee with you today. And you know what I hated being told when I was a kid? I actually still hate being told this as an adult. Just be patient. You just gotta be patient. Things will come to all that, wait, be patient. Be patient. Just be patient. There's a phrase that I. That I use a lot at work or sometimes even in hockey, which is hurry up and wait. Right? That's what it feels like. You're locked in because everybody's telling you to be patient. Let me tell you something. As a kid, I didn't want to be patient. I didn't want to wait. I wanted the world. I wanted everything right there, right now. And I'm not going to lie to you as an adult, I still feel that from time to time. But as an adult with 40 years of life lived, I've got some wisdom for you today. A different way of looking at it. I always try and think about, how would I wanted to have heard something when I was your age as a young adult or young kid that would have played a little better in my mind than just, hey, be patient. Just be patient. I'm going to teach you how to be patient in a way that doesn't feel horrible or that, like, you got shackles on and you can't move. Because we have to really just identify. What does it mean when we say be patient? Well, being patient means, again, you gotta wait for something. All right, let's break this down. Let's just talk about hockey. Let's just say you want to make a team. A great team, a great hockey team, great hockey level, whatever it is, you want to get there, but you got to play the season, or you got to play a few years before you get there. So what is patience in that process? It's the present moment and the things that you do in the present moment. Very quickly, just to review what that means, right? We as humans look at life 1 second at a time. The past has already happened. The future has not happened yet. You have no control over the past because it's done. You can influence the future, but you don't control the future. What you control is right now, the present moment. So when someone says to me, or I tell myself, hey, Lee, you got to be patient, that reverts to a different question. What am I doing right now to get something done? To make what my goal is a reality? Suddenly, when I looked at things like that, what are the actions I can take at the moment, or what actions am I taking right now? It didn't feel like I was locked in so much. I'm being patient in the sense of it gotta wait. But I'm acting. I'm doing something. It always feels better when you take action. I can tell you this right now. Whether I was a kid or an adult, when I was just kind of sitting around with nothing to do, it never felt great to me. But when I took action, I got up, I worked out. I shot pucks in my garage. I read about the game. I learned about the game every second. I took in the present moment to take action to help me achieve my goal in the future. Didn't feel that bad. Didn't feel like I was waiting, but I was being patient. But I was using the patience of the moment to identify the things that I needed to do in the now to help that future reality become a reality. So when someone tells you this season, hey, just be patient, take a step back. What does that mean? What can I do right now? And it might feel like in the moment, there's nothing you can do. There's almost always something you can do. I promise you, if you're curious, if you ask yourself some great questions, you'll find ways to move forward. Sometimes it might be doing something else, too. Sometimes it might be, go wash the dishes right now. Because you can do it. Now is the time to do it right. Not anybody's favorite thing to do. But the present moment is how you practice patience again. I hated being told to be patient. It just meant to me, hey, just wait. But great questions lead to great answers. What can you do in the present moment to get better and find your goal? So again, practicing patience. And again, practice keyword you can practice. This is identifying the things you can do right now, wherever you are, to get better or to improve to help you get what you want later on. That's how I want you to look at being patient now and moving forward. Practice that patience in the present moment. That's going to do it for this episode of the ride to the rink. I hope this was insightful. It wasn't too long, but it was a point I was thinking about the other day, and I realized that's exactly how I would have wanted to hurt it when I was a kid. Find what you can do in the moment, the right now, to get better for the goal that you have set for yourself. If you don't have a goal that you set for yourself, set one, and then you won't have to wait too long. You practice the patience. Because that journey, the hockey journey you're on is the gift. All right, everybody. This is Leelias. Another edition of the ride to the rink. We'll see you next time. We know it's hockey season right now. Enjoy every second. Drawn the ice. Remember to have fun, play hard, and as always, skate on. Take care, everybody.