A Key to Success: The Hockey Puck Principle

I am the biggest advocate that when a person wants to live a life by design that maximizes their greatest potential, there is no one size fits all.

Every client that I coach and advise has a different set of variables at work, different strengths, different weaknesses, different resources (time, money), etc.

For today's post, I want to share a principle I discussed on Periscope this morning about what I call the Hockey Puck Principle.

What is the Hockey Puck Principle?
The Hockey Puck Principle is a strategy inspired by Wayne Gretzky. In an interview, Gretzky was asked what has defined his domination and success in the grueling sport of hockey. Gretzky's quote was a game changing principle:

"Most guys followed where the puck currently was whereas I trained myself to always go to where the puck was going to be so that before my competitors had time to react, I was already in the spot."

Think about that for a minute...

We are all conditioned to take the path of least resistance which dictates that like the masses, we subconsciously set goals and create action plans according to where the puck currently is...along with your competitors, team members, employees, board members, and everyone else conditioned for the path of least existence.

What if, in applying this principle in your life, you used the 80/20 rule and spent just 20% of your time studying, researching and creating a goals plan that took into account where the puck "will be".

And further more, what if you utilized this 20% day in and day out, week after week? Can you imagine for a second how lucrative this could be in positioning you, your family, your company, your department, your board, your nonprofit?

Why Only 20%?
Because we live in a world of instant gratification and also have responsibilities that must be attended to daily/weekly/monthly, I understand that we can't spend 100% of our time strategizing and applying this principle. However, the more you can work this muscle, the more lucrative it will become to making the Hockey Puck Principle "your new normal".

An Example
I was speaking to one of my tough mentors and almost bragging about my plans for my firm and life over the next six months. I was mighty proud of myself and thought my mentor would be pleased... His response was shocking.

"Quenita, that ain't shit! I just got off the phone with a multi-millionaire and we were discussing our strategies for next summer (note: next summer was more than a year away)! Shut up and keep your head down!"

My jaw was on the floor. His comment and cursing wasn't intended to be rude... His point was that if you are going to brag about anything, brag when you are able to know what you're going to be doing, how you're going to execute and the resources you'll need at least one year from now.

This is an example of the Hockey Puck Principle.

One other example comes from none other than the infamous Steve Jobs. Jobs has famously said that if he only had led Apple to create products that customers needed, Apple would have never created the iPhone, iPod, iPad or the Mac...again, the Hockey Puck Principle at work: Apple is in the business of creating products for "where the puck will be".

So my question to you is: what product or service will you create that serves humanity while maximizing your potential in where the Hockey Puck will be?

Contact me at thesupagroup@gmail.com if you need a Coaching and strategic advisory session to figure it out.

Note: I haven't posted to this blog because I honestly thought no one would read it (smile). However, the blogging platform is the easiest platform in which to serve the masses who aren't clients (yet). So I'll be posting more...stay tuned!