Mark Messier Being Mindful

Foreign.

Welcome to the Mike Hartman Show. Mike is a performance coach and former Stanley cup champion with the New York Rangers. Topics on this show are focused around stories, mindset and champions. Mike will also go into details about helping you with your pain points and struggles and finding motivational solutions on how to have the mindset of a champion. Now, here's your host, Mike Hartman.

Welcome back to another episode. Today we are still going to be on the topic of mindfulness and I have a story for you. We're going to talk about the workplace athlete, how you could use this within your work as a leader or if you're an athlete that plays a sport, weekend warrior plays competitively. Elite athlete, world class athlete, it doesn't matter. This is something maybe you could learn from and this is a true example of leadership. So it was 1995 and it was just after the lockout year and I was playing with the New York Rangers, wasn't playing a lot. And we had a player that was called up to play his first game in Montreal in the Montreal form. So his name is Darren Langdon. He gets called up very excited. He's a kid from Newfoundland and just a really nice kid, tough as nails, big, strong hockey player. Never even thought, I mean, he played in the low minor leagues and to work his way up to the big leagues was amazing. So he finally gets the call from Binghamton, which was our. If some of you ball players that we work with out there, it's the same, it's like equivalent to triple A ball. But he played like A and double A prior to that. So you would look at that, he played in the lower minor leagues. Well, Darren gets called up and his first game is in the Montreal form. That's every Canadian's dream. The old Montreal form. I get chills when I was just walking in the building there, just to play there is very special. It's like a privilege. We talk about mindfulness, being mindful and being in the present. Walking in and looking at all the history in Montreal, it's just to me, it's incredible. Well, Darren Langdon gets called up, he's ready to play his first game and he shows up, I could say, in not the nicest clothes. Got to remember these big leaguers, especially with the New York Rangers. We had all those Stanley cup champions, all those veterans. We were like an all star team. These guys, they know how to dress, they've been through it all and it's not, we're not here. This is not a transactional type of podcast. I'm talking about today. It's not about the dollar, but it's just all about the heart that our captain, Mark Messier, had. So, anyways, Darren walks in. Old shoes, you know, clothes not up to what you would be wearing in the National Hockey League. Well, later on that day, we had a practice in Montreal, and the next day we were playing. So this gentleman comes in and says, hey, Darren, I was told to measure you. So he doesn't know. Maybe he's thinking he's getting measured for whatever it could be. He's saying, okay. He's getting all these measurements done. So to take this long story short, the next day, in comes these gorgeous suits and a nice pair of shoes that Mark Messier took care of our young guy, Darren Langdon with, and had this gorgeous Hugo Boss suit with some nice shirts, I believe. There were shoes, socks, and there was a little note, and all it says is, welcome to the big leagues. And Mark didn't put his name on there. He wasn't looking to get validated. In fact, he didn't even talk about it. It was something that was just done. And Darren was like, what's this for? Like, he's never even seen clothes like this. Hugo Boss was what we would wear back in the days. You know, you got to look. You got to look the part. You got to look good, professional, especially, you know, walking into the stadium and, you know, what have you, whatever it is, if you're going out for dinner, that's part of the makeup. Some organizations, like Toronto back in the day, I don't even know if it's still there. You had a shave. You had to be clean shaved. So being part of the original six and being part of the New York Rangers, first class. You dressed in first class, which every team does in the NHL, so. So. But Darren was so appreciative. He had a tear in his eye, and he says, what's this? And the guy said, welcome to the team. And it was all Mark Messier that did that. And Mark doesn't take credit for things. He's. He's just the leader. That's just something that. That he does. I mean, I can go on and tell 10 stories about Mark right now, but I'm going to save him for. For this podcast. I look up to Mark Messier. He was a hero of mine when I was a kid. And then to really get to know him and to show his leadership and how mindful he is of everybody around him, to me, really shows what kind of a person he is. If you ever know anything about Mark Messier, if you watch him after a championship, he's got tears running down his eyes. Everything he does from, you know, is all about everybody else. And that's just how he lives his life. I mean, he goes out of his way for people, cares about people and anybody within leadership, whether it's you're an athlete, like I said, or the workplace athlete, maybe you could learn from this. I'm not saying go out and buy a, you know, a very expensive Hugo Boss suit for one of your co workers, but be mindful and be that leader that you could be. I hope you enjoyed this episode and you're going to get a lot more little stories from me. And until next time, you know, have a, have a fantastic day.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Mike Hartman Show. If you're enjoying what you've heard so far, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review on your preferred podcast listening platform. We really appreciate that effort. We'll catch you in the next episode of the Mike Hartman Show.