From last place to Stanley Cup.
The St. Louis Blues are a living, breathing example of how important mindset management and mental toughness are to a team. In sports, mental toughness is defined as the ability to focus on and execute solutions, especially in the face of adversity. The team and its coach could write a book on it.
Craig Berube, coach of the St. Louis Blues is a nan incredible example of mental toughness. Undrafted for over 30 years of his career, no NHL team took a shot on him until the Philadelphia Flyers signed him on March 19, 1986. During his first game, he picked up two fighting majors, setting the tone for a career on the ice that lasted over 1,000 games. In 2013, as coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, he took the team to the finals, lost, and was fired.
Berube wasn’t born with toughness, it was developed and strengthened over time. He sacrificed his own agenda on and off the ice. He always had a team-first mentality. Berube learned at a very young age that you always did the hard things first.
· You picked your weakest spot and worked on it first during every practice.
· You were first on the ice and last off.
· You were accountable to yourself, to your coach, and to your team.
· You dealt with your problems.
· You guarded your thoughts.
· You always remembered where you came from, no exceptions.
The past shaped him for greatness and was the fuel that allowed him to inspire his team with heart. He earned the title of “The Enforcer,” having high expectations as a player from his teammates, then as a coach from his players and fellow staff members.
The Blues franchise had never won a Stanley Cup until 2019 and no player on their roster had, either.
Mental Toughness – What if after getting fired, Craig had given up hockey?
The world wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity to meet and fall in love with 11-year-old superfan, Laila Anderson. Laila suffers from a rare autoimmune disease that requires a bone marrow transplant. Members of the team met her during a hospital visit and became inspired by her fighting spirit.
Photo Credit: NHL.com
The exposure given to the team on and off the ice allowed the world a new opportunity to donate to the ”Be The Match Donor Registry” and watch the reunion of a healthy Laila and her bone marrow transplant donor during one of the games.
https://www.bethematchlaila.com/ All donations go to support the millions of Americans on the transplant list who need bone marrow to live.
(Donate in Canada at Canadian Blood Services)
Everyone Can Benefit from Mental Toughness
Mental toughness isn’t just required for success in sports or business, but mental toughness is absolutely vital for the millions of North Americans who will be diagnosed with a serious blood disease to stay alive.
- The number of Canadians living with or in remission from blood cancer has increased by 25% from 2014 to 2016. (Fact from LLSCanada)
- This year more than 130,000 Americans will be diagnosed with a serious blood disease.
- Leukemia (a blood cancer) will strike 44,000 Americans this year, including 3,500 children. It will kill about half of the adults and about 700 of the children.
- Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer.
- Only 30 percent of patients who need a bone marrow transplant have a matching donor in their families.
- The remaining 70 percent must hope that a compatible stranger can be found using the national registry.
- At any given time, about 7,500 Americans are actively searching the national registry for an unrelated donor.
- Only 2 percent of the American population is on the national registry.
- At least 3,000 people die each year because they cannot find a matching donor.
- Donating bone marrow is safe: More than 35,000 people have donated bone marrow to a stranger without a single donor death.
(*Data gathered by the Institute for Justice)
Becoming Mentally Tough through Edge Learning
Mental toughness is the skill, a characteristic, and a mindset that helps you also win in business. It’s that Edge Learning internal skill that will get you through the rough times and empower you to perform your best with less effort, less struggle, and less stress.
The great ones who resonate with mental toughness can absorb the unexpected and remain supple and non-defensive. They maintain humor even when the situation becomes tough.
Great leadership means … you remain flexible in your approach in the good times and the bad. You are always on the lookout for new ways to solve the most current problems.
Great leaders always find the strength to dig deep and garner the resolve to keep going, moving forward even when in a seemingly losing game.
Game-ready business leaders bring that same intensity, through all the beatings entrepreneurship has to give.
It was the title of ‘enforcer’ early in his career that paid respect to Craig’s determination and grit. It was his relentless persistence, and game-ready leadership that resonated with the St. Louis Blues team. But it was Craig’s strength on and off the bench that led them all to victory.
Whether the arena is sports, life or business, the same principles of mental toughness and resiliency apply.
Your past may not define you, but it explains you.
You’re relentless and mentally tough because life taught you to be that way.
Embrace your mental toughness, and don’t apologize. Use it as your fuel to win.
More about Lisa: An advisor to influencers and business leaders, finding new opportunities for them. Lisa’s contagious personality and zest for life resonate with audiences everywhere. A serial entrepreneur, whose goal has always been to help others by ensuring they have the right opportunity with the right strategy to create new possibilities.
Lisa is a believer in realizing one’s potential. The impossible is attainable and only you can judge the level of your success.
Love,
Lisa
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