Five Lessons

I like to think about things and learn lessons about life even in the midst of what are seemingly “downtime” or diversions. It’s one of the reasons I love sports so much. They’re such a terrific metaphor for life.
This past week many important lessons were reinforced.
Many weeks ago Julian Bauer, a former camper of ours from Camp Menominee in Eagle River, Wisconsin, reached-out to me through Facebook to tell me he was moving from Chicago to Tampa.
Lesson #1: Facebook is awesome and may be the greatest vehicle in history to connect and reconnect Beautiful Humans.
On that initial message Julian asked me if I would want to get together sometime since he knew few people in the area.
Lesson #2: You have wonderful contacts all around you. Don’t be afraid to reach-out to them even though you are risking being “rejected”. The worse thing they can say is “no thank you”.
Then last Friday Julian followed-through on his initial request and asked if I wanted to get together to watch the Blackhawk game on Saturday. I was available and immediately responded with a resounding, “YES”!
Lesson #3: When opportunities present themselves, and you can and want to do it, “Just Do It”! (Plus, follow-through is incredibly important to success. I’ll have much more to say on that in a later post and video.)

We had a great time and the Hawks won. Julian suggested we get together for Monday night’s potential championship game and that we should wear the exact same clothes we were wearing. I again concurred. (See the pictures from the two evenings.)

Lesson #4: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

In Monday night’s game the Hawks were down 2-1 with about 3:00 left. At that point I told the guys that were watching the game with us that we had to switch it up, that we needed to do “our part”. So, we all moved seats. Then I had the bar we were at switch the TV that was next to the one we were watching the Stanley Cup game on to the hockey game as well. Then I turned my Hawks’ hat inside-out in “rally-cap” fashion. Then the Blackhawks tied the game with their net empty with a little over 1:00 left in the game. Then 17 seconds later they scored the winning goal that would lead to their second Stanley Cup in four seasons. Now, of course, what we did had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the result on the ice but it made me think of…

Lesson #5: The best definition of insanity that I know is doing the same damn thing while hoping for different results.
 
You see, my friends, you can learn beneficial lessons almost anywhere, anytime, and through any scenario. Oh, and BTW, after almost 20 years I’ve renewed a relationship with an amazing guy. Thanks Julian!