The odds are stacked against you — but someone beats them. Why not you?
Look around you.
On your team.
In your school.
In the locker room.
Most of them aren’t going to make it.
Not to the show.
Not to their dream school.
Not to the highest level.
That’s not negativity — it’s math. The road is too steep, the competition too fierce, and the grind too long.
I’ll never forget when I was playing junior hockey in the USHL back in 2001. My billet dad asked a scout how many guys on our team he thought would make it to the NHL.
The scout didn’t even blink:
“One. Maybe two.”
That could’ve crushed me. It could’ve pushed me back into the middle of the herd. But for some reason… it lit me on fire.
I decided right then: I was going to be one of the two.
Belief Is a Skill
I don’t know where my belief came from. Maybe it was a gift, maybe it was built. But here’s what I know now:
If you want to chase something big, you have to train your belief the same way you train your shot, your speed, or your hands.
This is where self-talk comes in.
Negative self-talk? It pushes you further from your dream.
Positive self-talk? It rewires your brain, one rep at a time, until belief takes root.
Tell yourself you’re going to make it.
Tell yourself until you believe it.
And when you finally believe it… that’s when things change.
Your Challenge This Week
Next time you step on the driveway, the ice, or the foam roller, catch your inner voice in action.
Are you feeding your belief or crushing it?
Are you walking toward your dream or away from it?
The difference between the ones who make it and the ones who don’t often comes down to this: belief before proof.