Oct 11: Celebrate The Small Victories   When I was playing I used two amazing sport psychologists, still practicing today with a plethora of NHL and professional athletes under their tutelage. Dr. Fred Neff and Dr. Max Offenberger. I have both of them along with Harvard athletics sport psychologist Dr. Elizabeth Ward speak at our AAA camps annually. Please feel free to google any of the three and take advantage of their skype training if anyone is interested in having their children work with a great sport psychologist. They are all excellent. Among many things I learned from Fred and Max, I learned to celebrate the small victories. Make a list of small short term goals for the week and celebrate the small victory in achieving each one. Examples: Keep track of your one v one battles at practice all week and write down how many you won. Make a goal of beating everyone to the puck in practice all week. Keep track of how you did at the end of the week. Make a goal of being the first and last one on the ice all week in practice. Make a goal of using your Mr. Assist at home for thirty minutes a day all week. Make a goal of getting to bed by 9pm every night this week. Make a goal of drinking more water this week. Make a goal of shooting 500 shots this week at home. Make a goal of using your study halls in school wisely and making a big dent in getting homework done in school. At the end of the week after doing all of this…see how you play in your game over the weekend. Bet you will have a great game. Celebrate the small victories.   “It’s, therefore, important to make sure you celebrate your small goals along the way. Acknowledging small wins sparks the reward circuits of our brains and releases chemicals that give us a feeling of pride and a happiness factor, making us want to go further towards our next achievement. ” “Celebrating little wins is critical to monitoring and tracking incremental accomplishments and achievements as it allows you to notice and pay attention to the present moment. Your journey of achievement is sometimes more important than the end goal.” Happy Columbus Day, Happy Indigenous Peoples Day. Happy Thanksgiving to Canadians. Hope everyone had a great holiday.