“Edmonton Oilers Having Fun”

Welcome to the Healthy Mindset App podcast where host Mike Hartman, a performance coach and former professional athlete, brings his passion to help athletes and workplace athletes achieve their dreams and goals while being mindful of everything else in life. Mike also uses this platform to share his targeted assessment applications. Healthy Mindset course, meditation and goal setting technique for the athlete and workplace athlete. We're glad you're here. Now let's dive headfirst into this episode of the Healthy Mindset App podcast. Here's your host, Mike Hartman.

Today on Stories of Gratitude. I am going to talk about the Edmonton Oilers hockey team. And actually the Edmonton Oilers were my favorite team growing up. I remember as a young kid in Detroit, I think I was about 14 years old, my father was the photographer for the Detroit Red Wings and I always wanted to go to that Edmonton Detroit Red Wing game to see Wayne Gretzky and Kevin Lowe and Mark Messier and all of these great players. Glenn Anderson, who happens to be a good friend of mine today, I told Glenn I used to wait for him after the games. He played with the New York Rangers as well. We've had a lot of the Edmonton Oilers. But what I'm going to talk about, I'm not talking about myself today. I'm just talking about the love I had for the Edmonton Oilers and I looked up to them and one thing that I really took in my first year as a player, I'm just going to share the Edmonton Oilers story. So my first year I was 19 years old and we were playing the Oilers and I got to the rink, I would get to the stadium very early for, you know, for our pre game skate. So if our pre game skate was at 11, like it usually is, the home team usually gets on around a quarter to 10 or so and we do about 30, 40 minutes of just warming up, having our pre game skate, doing some flow drills. And I went there to watch the Edmonton Oilers and I just, my jaw was like wide open. I was watching these players like Messier and you know, McTavish back then and Glenn Anderson, Yari Curry, all of these great players. Just watching them out on the ice blew me away because I watched how much fun they had with the game. So a big part of this story of gratitude is have fun. If you're, if you're an athlete, enjoy it. No matter if you're a weekend warrior, you're playing pickleball, you're a college athlete, a pro athlete, go out there and have passion for what you're doing. And if you don't love it, there's something wrong. And there's nothing wrong with that, but there's something wrong if you keep playing a sport and you don't like it. I recently had a. This is what made me think of doing this episode. I had a young player tell me, they don't really like practice. They don't like what they're doing. And I said, you better rethink things a little bit here. You know, your parents spent a lot of money on this sport for you. They invest in you. It's a privilege to play a sport. So just really rethink that. But just going back to the Oilers. So I get to the rink early and I get in what we call as our sports, you know, underneath underwear that we would wear. And you go up and you sit in the. In the stadium. And I just watched these players have so much fun, like laughing and having fun and skating hard and moving the puck, that I almost had to pinch myself and say, wait a second, am I playing against these. These players tonight? And they just enjoyed it. Some of them didn't have helmets on. I'm not recommending that to anybody. Please wear helmets. But these players had their helmets off. The Oilers, I was watching Tikkonen clown around, ended up playing with Essa Tikonen. Real funny, really funny person. And I just looked and I said, look at this now. We had fun with the Sabres. We were actually last overall that year. It's nothing to brag about. I think I played 17 games, the first 17 games with the team, and then I got sent back to Junior. I wasn't ready to be up there. But just watching these players move the puck, shooting the puck, watching Grant Fearnet and just how much fun they had, and they took pride in what they were doing, and if somebody missed the net, they would get called out by their teammates. And, you know, for me, just watching the intensity of these players just blew me away to this day. And I think I had more fun watching their practice than I actually did playing in the game that night. So for me, I just want to share the. The importance of having fun with the game, going out there and enjoying yourself. I'm not going to say that everybody is, you know, have to. Have to be like the Edmonton Railers in my eyes. That was probably one of the best hockey teams I have ever seen in my life. Let's not forget Paul Coffey. I'm probably forgetting so many others. And it's even fascinating, too, thinking back. They had a player by the name of Randy Gregg, who I was told he was Only going to play so many years in the NHL and then he's, he's a pediatrician and he was going back to school after to finish up to be a pediatrician. So here he is playing for the Edmonton Oilers, the best team on the planet back then. In my eyes, you know, I'm not going to compare him to the teams in Russia. That's a whole different story. Maybe it was, you know, a little bit different back then, but in my eyes I couldn't believe. And here's Randy Gregg, you know this. He's 6 foot 5, opposing defenseman and I was told he's going to only play a few years more, which what he did. And he's a pediatrician now after all these years. So these players had fun, they enjoyed the game. Today, I'm just speaking from the heart. It's something that I wanted to share. It really touched me when that player said recently that they don't want to play anymore, they don't like it, they're not having fun, they're bored. And I could tell you, no matter what level you are, you, you have to enjoy the game. That's where the mindfulness comes in. That's where your mindset comes in. Yeah, sure. Not every day is going to be a laughing, happy day. I'm sure with the Edmonton Oilers, but even with you, everything is not going to just be okay. I'm going to go out and have fun. But no matter what it is, take on the challenge. Whether you're an athlete, you play basketball and you play one minute, just be the best one minute player, have that mindset, okay? I'm not going to get upset. I'm going to be positive. I'm going to bring good energy to my team. But I'm going to be that best one minute player tonight and start developing that growth mindset. We've said so many times, the growth mindset says, I'm open to things, I want to learn, I'm going to educate myself, I'm going to listen, I'm going to study, I'm going to do whatever I can to get better. I'm going to be a good teammate. And the fixed mindset says, oh, I'm not playing, I don't care, I don't want to be here. And that just brings, it's going to bring you down. It's going to be negative on your, not only yourself but your teammates and it's going to hurt everybody along the way. So have fun with the game. If we could help you in any way, please go to healthymindsetapp.com healthymindsetapp.com no www and shoot us a message and we're offering scholarships to anybody that cannot afford to be in our community. I am offering a scholarship and first of all you have to send us an email. Go to our website, send us an email. We believe in helping people and adding as much value as we can to you. So I'm excited about this series of stories of gratitude. So until next time, have a fantastic day and I wish you all the best.

We're so glad you joined us for this episode of the Healthy Mindset App Podcast with your host, Mike Hartman. If you're enjoying the show, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcast. That helps others find the show, and we greatly appreciate it. To dive deeper and learn more about the Healthy Mindset program or to get in touch with Mike, please visit our website, healthy mindsetapp.com thanks again for listening and we hope you'll join us again in the next episode of the Healthy Mindset App Podcast. Until then, be well.