May 13, 2013….ring a bell? This is the day the Toronto Maple Leafs lost a heartbreaking Game 7 in overtime in Boston.
I was in Chicago on the 13th at a trade show. I had the privilege of being at Wrigley Field watching the Cubs play from the roof-top bleachers on Waveland Ave overlooking left field.
If you have the opportunity to go I highly recommend it. The bleachers are built on top of townhomes that have been converted into social clubs. The main floor may be someone’s home, second is an indoor bar, third is where the bleachers are along with some smokers and amazing food.
After the 6th inning I decided to go down to the 2nd floor and watch the game, we (the Leafs) were up 4-1 with about 10min left. This one was in the bag…
After the Bruins scored to make it 4-3 with around 2min left the odds were still in Toronto’s favour to win….all they had to do was take care of the fundamentals!
For the Leafs the fundamentals were face-offs. The reason Toronto lost that game was because they couldn’t win a face-off in the last 2 minutes of the game. Instead, Boston won the face-offs and controlled the flow of the game, they had the momentum and didn’t give it back.
The impossible happened, the Leafs lost a game they couldn’t lose. With less than 5min left in the game they were 97% favourites to win, yet they lost.
What are your fundamentals? The things that sometimes get sloppy, rushed or dismissed when things are going well. The things we know we should be doing everyday, week, month but when things are well complacency sets in and the fundamentals go out the window.
That is until our performance and results begin to suffer. Then we look back and realize we got away from the things that were fundamental to our success. Then we have to go back and start building our discipline again which is really hard to do.
Know what you fundamentals are and no matter how well things are going stick to them. Your future self will thank you!
The Inspirational Mobilizer 
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