Stevie Puckett

Tag: sports

  • Canoes and Mindset

    When I lived in California in the late 1990s, I attended business networking events to promote my career counseling practice. I sat in at many networking luncheons and had many lovely conversations with new people. We all nearly always left inspired, and I enjoyed it very much.

    One time as conversations simmered down and we prepared to part ways, someone said to me, “Have you heard of Esther Hicks?” I said that I hadn’t met her yet, and I asked more about her and why they brought her up. The person responded with what Esther and Jerry Hicks were all about and stated that I sounded like Esther when I talked about positive mental attitudes, inspiration, and hope. That seemed like a nice thing to say, but when the person explained what Esther did in her public speaking appearances, I freaked out and didn’t give it another thought.

    But then Esther Hicks was brought up to me again and again over six months. That was my cue to pay more attention. Once something comes into my life more than a couple of times, I take that as a cue to check into it further. I consider that a type of intuitive guidance.

    So I looked Esther Hicks up and gave her a fair shot. Once I got beyond the strangeness of what Esther did on stage, I took to listening in periodically over the years. In retrospect, I probably got all I needed to hear the first time I heard her speak.

    The first idea that I heard from Esther is about being in your canoe, letting go of the paddles, and just laying back and resting in your canoe as you float downstream. The underlying idea is to trust the river to take you to experiences you will enjoy. That image resonated with me. I was tired of striving, and I knew floating happily down the river thanks to tubing the Illinois during my childhood.

    I instantly felt substantial relief in my body, my intuition pinged, and I knew this idea was what I needed. To this day, I still do a mini-meditation where I picture and feel myself floating downstream whenever I’m grounded and aware enough to realize that I’ve been trying too hard.

    For me, trying too hard is a surefire way to self-sabotage. My dad and coaches used to tell me that as a teen. They encouraged me to feel the play unfolding because, I know now, they appreciated the brilliance they saw from me when I just flowed with it and didn’t overthink or try too hard. When I was at my best, I was an intuitive athlete. Little did I know that my angels were trying to teach me something fundamental even way back then.

    When I heard about letting your canoe go downstream rather than fighting the current to head upstream all those years later, it clicked into place.

    As Esther said, “There’s nothing that you want upstream.” To me, that means that upstream, there is only more paddling and struggle. I don’t want to struggle. I want to flow.

    I have been welcoming much more joy in my life as I’ve remembered to let go of the oars, and this I appreciate.

  • Sports, Integrity, Life

    Sports teaches you character, it teaches you to play by the rules, it teaches you to know what it feels like to win and lose —it teaches you about life. -Billie Jean King

    Billie Jean King has it right regarding sports teaching about character and life. The player has the opportunity to face the anxiety (aka fear) and respond with integrity (aka love). Doesn’t mean they will but it also doesn’t mean they won’t learn to respond with integrity eventually even if a hard fall is required first. People are always learning even if they don’t intend to. Life is one big experiment that way.

    Sports aren’t the only places to learn to face the fear and respond with integrity, of course. Lessons come for everyone through one life arena or another: family, school, health, relationships. We can choose to be authentic in our daily interactions and activities. There are opportunities regularly for each of us to choose integrity and good reasons for doing so even if it means “losing” in the interim. The biggest reasons for doing so are to know your true self, to stretch your own personal limits, and to live the whole-hearted* beauty of an authentic life.

  • An Inverted Jedi Mind Trick

    Pay attention to what you’re focusing on. This one thing can do wonders to increase your satisfaction in life almost immediately.

    First, understand that what you focus on affects how you feel.

    If what you’re thinking about makes you feel bad, it affects your energy level in a bad way. It lowers your vibe. If you’re thinking about something that makes you feel bad, you will quickly start to feel stressed or tired or just generally have a bad attitude.

    On the other hand, if what you’re thinking about makes you feel good, it affects your energy level in a good way. It raises your vibe! It doesn’t matter if what you’re thinking about it is true or not. What matters is if it helps you feel good.

    So, for example, use this to enhance your career. If thinking about the weekend makes you feel good, then spend a few seconds periodically daydreaming about your free time. But if thinking about the weekend makes you feel bad because you want it to be the weekend now, or it makes you yearn for the weekend, then avoid thoughts about the weekend. Choose to focus on something that makes you feel good instead.

    Here’s another example. On an old episode of Dancing with the Stars, Olympian Evan Lysacek was being coached by his dancing pro Anna Trebunskaya. Evan was a top-notch technician but was not good at showing emotion in his dancing. Anna asked him, “What makes you happy?” Evan mumbled something about cars then said as his face lit up, “my baby nephew!”

    He then proceeded to show his coach cute little videos of his nephew on his phone. He was smiling and laughing the whole time. Anna capitalized on that reaction and brought it to his attention. Long story short, he danced like a whole new man in that week’s competition. Even more importantly, he now knows a trick (shall we say, a Jedi mind trick?) for something to focus on when he notices he is not feeling as good as he could.

    You can do the same to enhance your life. Gather some “go to” thoughts you can use to switch your thinking when you notice you’re dragging. Keep a list of thoughts you can try to change your focus when necessary. Maybe it’s a favorite memory, a song you love, or silently reciting a list of who loves you. There is always something you can focus on for a few seconds to raise yourself to a more positive vibe. Find it and focus there to notice a new perspective on life nearly immediately.

  • On Making Changes in Your Body

    When you want to make changes to your body, such as losing or gaining weight, adding muscle, or developing your fashion style, it’s good to remember that it all begins with what you think of yourself. For satisfying progress and results, cut yourself a break and learn to discipline your thoughts to focus more on not only what you appreciate about your body but also what you appreciate in your life.

    Positive transformations can take place within your body. There are solutions around for you. If you can tap into a new positive expectation, you will be brought to ideas that you had not noticed before, or you may try something again with a whole new attitude that makes all the difference. Or, on an even bigger scale, you may find a new understanding as to why being slowed down with difficulty with your body provides you with an experience that helps you develop a needed skill or have a special experience in your life.

    When you know what improvement you want in your body, you have a few choices. You can feel angry, depressed, or generally awful about yourself…or you can treat yourself as a child of the universe who is learning, and you can cut yourself a break.

    All that happened before is part of the process that brings you to now, and that’s all, just a step along the way. If you notice that you often look back and kick your own butt about stuff, try letting it go instead. You can be sure you did the best you could with the information you had at the time. So be kind to yourself. You are open to change and improvement now, and that is fine and good.

    Move forward with inspiration knowing that you have always made the best move you were capable of at the time, and you will continue to do the same. Now is the time to nurture yourself by controlling your focus. What matters is what happens next, and your results going forward are directly related to feeling good now.

    Imagine how you will feel when you have what you want and choose to feel that way now. Get jazzed about all the experiences you want to have and what you want to create and go with that feeling as long as you can for a few minutes every single day. Daydream that the changes you want are already here. Do it with an attitude of fun. It’s fun to play with ideas of what you can choose and what the improvements will mean for your life.

    Appreciate vitality when you see it. Use the beauty you see around you as a reason to feel good. Know that more vitality is coming to you when you can feel good, even if only for a little bit at first. Each time you practice, you will become better and better at feeling good and appreciating your body.

    The importance of being okay with slow results can’t be over-emphasized. If you allow yourself to reinforce feelings of frustration or anger at slow results, you defeat your own purpose. Change can come, and it may be at a snail’s pace, but if you focus on the slow pace, you get more of a slow-down. 

    Instead, please focus on the momentum. Ideas you can use are coming faster and faster. It is getting easier and easier to maintain the good habits you intended. There is momentum, and you are heading in a direction that feels good as you remember to enjoy life from where you are right now.