It’s never too late to become a new version of you.
Sometimes we get stuck in the past.
I know I’ve been there.
Halfway through my decade-long professional hockey career, I found myself in Europe.
I was still playing pro hockey. Still making money playing the game I loved. Living the good life. Traveling. Hitting the town.
From the outside, life probably looked pretty good.
But inside, I knew the truth.
I had given up on the dream I had come so close to achieving.
I wasn't chasing the NHL anymore.
I was drifting.
And at some point, I had to look at myself and make a decision.
I could keep going down the same path...
Or I could reinvent myself.
I decided I was going to become a legitimate pro hockey player.
Not just a guy who was good enough to bounce around Europe and make a living playing the game.
I wanted to become the absolute best version of myself as a hockey player.
I wanted to battle.
I wanted to fight.
I wanted to do whatever it took to get to the NHL.
That decision required some big changes.
I had to get into the best shape of my life.
I started taking my training seriously.
I started looking at the game scientifically.
I paid attention to what I was putting into my body.
I worked on my mind.
I visualized.
I trained harder.
I recovered better.
But here's what I learned...
Reinventing yourself isn't always one massive, dramatic change.
It's a subtle art.
It's watching game film when nobody else is watching.
I would go through every single still frame of my shifts.
Where did I have time?
Where did I have space?
What could I have done differently?
What did I miss?
That's the subtle art.
It's taking that hour before bed when you're watching TV and getting down on the floor with a foam roller.
Instead of sitting on the couch doing nothing, you're actively recovering your body for tomorrow.
Nobody sees it.
Nobody applauds you.
Nobody posts it on Instagram.
But it counts.
Maybe it's adding something to your diet.
Maybe it's eliminating something from your diet.
Maybe it's getting an extra hour of sleep.
Maybe it's shutting the screen off an hour before bed and getting that blue light out of your eyes.
Little things.
Small adjustments.
Subtle changes that almost seem insignificant in the moment.
But you start stacking them.
Day after day.
Week after week.
Month after month.
And slowly...
You become a different person.
That's how you reinvent yourself.
First, you have to see where you are right now.
You have to be willing to look at yourself and admit that you're dissatisfied with something.
Then you make a decision.
You put your eyes, your mind, and your heart in the direction you want to go.
Now you have a direction.
You have a trajectory.
And every day, you start doing the little things that move you toward that destination.
Maybe you had a bad season last year.
Maybe you had a great season and you know there's another level in you.
Maybe you had the worst year of your life and you feel like you need to completely start over.
I'm telling you that you can reinvent yourself.
I did it in my hockey career.
And now, a decade removed from the game, maybe I'm writing this email as a pep talk to myself too.
Because I know I can reinvent myself again.
I can lose the weight I've put on.
I can become stronger.
I can become healthier.
I can become a better version of myself.
I've done it before.
And I know what it takes.
Change your mind.
Change your thoughts.
Change your ambitions.
Put your focus on the person you want to become.
Then start taking those small, subtle steps in that direction.
Start today.
Become the hockey player you want to be.
Become the person you want to be.
Knuckles up,
Bobby Robins, savage motivator, NHL Alum, writer for Wraparound
P.S. The subtle art of reinventing yourself happens when nobody else is watching. It's in the garage. It's on the driveway. It's those extra reps after practice when everyone else has already gone home. Grab your Puckaround. Protect your stick with a Wraparound. Then get to work becoming the best version of yourself you can possibly bring to your team this season.