PelhamToday received the following letter comparing the Toronto Maple Leafs and hockey in general to real life.
I'm not much of a sports fan, but I do follow the Maple Leafs. It will be many weeks until we get to watch the Leafs play again. Until then, I think there’s value to be had in taking a hockey player mindset along with us.
No doubt there are many parallels that can be drawn between sports and real life. Themes such as players, coaches, teams, winning, losing and so on. But I had a new thought about the playoffs the other day.
Many sports fans will know that an NHL playoff series must be decided in no more than seven games. It occurred to me that there are also seven days in a week.
Coincidence?
What if we treated each week like an NHL playoff series? In order to win a playoff series it requires four wins (out of maximum number of seven games). A team does not have to win every game in the series to win the series, it just has to win four out of the seven. When a team wins a series, it proceeds to the next playoff round, unless it is the finals, where the winner of that series would win the grand prize: the Stanley Cup.
So if hockey teams only have to win four games out of seven to win a series, why can't we also apply that rule to our own lives? Following this playoffs' logic, if we can win four out of the seven days of the week, we win the week.
It's not that hard to find some joy and gratitude every day, but on the other hand it's not easy to truly win the day. Not every day is awesome and celebratory. In fact, we might feel defeated some days.
Well, don't sweat it. Just think like a hockey player who's in the playoffs. You may have lost a day for some reason, but it does not mean you will lose the series (the week).
I think our goal should be to win at least four days out of the seven days in a week. If you can win more days than that, consider it a bonus. Then we can move on to the next playoff round, or the next week.
If we don't win four days out of the seven one week, then we probably need to do some serious thinking and reflection; just as the Leafs are doing right now.
Paxton Allewell
Fonthill
